Fallout The Guardian and the Angel Book 1 of 2
by Sapphire Tomoe
Summary: Vault Dweller meets ghouls & feels for them, she decides 2 try and make a cure. Ava falls sick and her ghoul tries to keep her alive while the Brotherhood come after her to stop her from making a cure for the ghouls.Nudity/Death/Swearing
1. Chapter 1

In the year 2316 the world was beginning a slow and tedious healing process. The World War in 2077 left everything dust and soot. The people that were lucky or unlucky if you think about it, enough to survive were falling sick from the radiation that generations had been exposed to for more than 200 years. There were many people that were able to find refuge in Vaults before the nuclear destruction. Many of these people, even at this point in time, had no idea what to expect of the outside world. Time was running low and so were resources for these scarce Vaults that had not yet been open to the world since the basic destruction of everything.

Deep inside Vault 206 in Fredericksburg, Virginia the family descendants of the late US President are slowly dying from starvation, diseases and inbreeding. The Vault started with nearly 100 residents. Everyone had brought enough supplies from their own homes when the Vaults were first populated that the rations had stretched for longer than most Vaults. Well that was the plan anyways. This didn't go as well as the Vault dwellers had hoped. They lived in a Vault that was only supposed to hold 70 Vault persons at max and not 100. The supplies began to run low about 50 years sooner than expected, in attempt to cut down the usage of the supplies two families began killing off everyone else. These people had began to intermarry in their own families at the young ages of 12 and when the couples grew to be young adults they would kill off their parents to make way for their children, these people bred so close that a couple were severely retarded and others had slight malformations such as short legs, but most were normal. Some of the very few left in the vault that aren't severally inbred are a young girl around the age of nineteen, her younger brother of fourteen and their parents. Her parents had decided long ago that they weren't going to marry their children seeing as the Vault resources were so low that there was no choice but to send their children into the unknown when they grew of age.

Ava was just becoming a woman and was not looking forward to leaving her family behind. She knew that there was a plan. She was to immediately check the town, visit the home of the first president then head for the White House and reclaim the family right to the US leadership. If a vehicle was in operation, which the family was sure of from the war posters, then the way to the capital would be quick and victorious. Then she was to come back and bring the rest of the family with her.

She lay on her cot in her cold metal room, her head leaning slightly from her bun. The flickering of the Vault lights above her, gleaming off her bright blue eyes, was the same as every other day. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, something didn't seem right. She heard little feet coming toward her, "What do you want, Ben? I thought I told you not to bother me!" The footsteps stopped a couple feet away from the bed.

"Sis, you are leaving today… What…umm…what if I don't ever see you again? Won't you be sad?" he said holding his hands in front of him and twirling his thumbs around each other. "The Wenton's boy said that his dad told him the whole world has nothing not even rocks, or trees and nothing survives even an hour after it is out in the open, what if he is right? Sis! I don't want you to go!" he said hurried as tears welled up in his eyes.

Ava sat up with her feet touching the floor; she grabbed her brother and pulled him close. "Benjamin, why would you even listen to George? You heard what dad said, he said by this time things are starting to grow again and there should be lots of people around; I shouldn't have too much of a problem, anyway… I'm bringing a Mister Gutsy robot from the storage room for protection. Dad said that it should keep me plenty safe." She hugged him to reassure him, "Anyway those people need us to lead them into greatness! Our family will bring any problems they have to null. They need us."

Ben smiled up at her, "I guess you are right, you will be President soon and I will be Vice President until I am big. They need us and we need to be strong! Just promise you will come back for me? I don't want to be stuck with George and his family forever! PLEASE!" he begged at his older sister.

"That is no way for a Vice President to act, "she giggled, "But…yes I promise I will come back for you. If I can I will take mom and dad with us as well. It's almost time for me to go I need to get ready, tell dad to start getting ready to open the doors." Ava let go of her brother and stood up. She went over to her suit case and began to pack. Ben stood watching her for a moment then scampered off down the hallway.

She packed her best dress, it was a blue dress with rolled and button sleeves. She put in her black shoes and her pretty bonnet in as well. "_This should be nice for when I have to talk in public."_ She thought to herself, she packed an extra pink day dress to wear the rest of the time. Aside from her Vault outfit she was ready, well as ready as she would be for what was in store for her in moments.

She made her way with her things to the front entrance of the Vault to meet her father. Her father was standing next to her mother and little brother waiting to say their farewells before opening the doors for the first time in more than thirty years. She walked to her father and hugged him; there was no exchange in words between the two of them. It was written on his face that he was scared yet proud of what she was going out to do. Her mother began to sob "Oh my baby girl!" she came over to Ava and hugged her sobbing harder. Their mothers sobbing triggered young Ben to start crying and hanging on to his sisters Vault Uniform. "Mom… Dad…Ben…I will be back for you all, I promise! Now don't crying you know me, I am smart and more than just crafty." She hugged her mother back and her crying began to lessen. Her mother grabbed Ben and brought him back behind her.

Ava looked over at her father and nodded her head that she was ready. Her father stepped to her "You can't leave without these," he said handing her a pair of shaded sunglasses and a Mister Gutsy robot came out from the door to their right. "The sun will be too bright for your eyes since you are so used to the lighting here. I have programmed the robot to do just about anything you tell him too; he will protect you to the best of his ability… Good bye dear." Ava smiled at her father and nodded a small thank you. She placed the sunglasses on her face and with her suitcase in hand she looked at the large metal cog shaped door with despair. The lights began to flash and the door unsealed itself for the first time that she had ever seen. There were stories of another person that had promised to come back; from before she was born. No one knows what had happened to him, but she figured life outside was either so amazing he didn't want to come back, or it was so bad that…well…the worst had happened.

The door locked into place and she began her journey out of the Vault. Her steps where slow as she began over the threshold with hesitation; the Gutsy robot following close behind. She breathed deep and began down the tunnel to the door out into the open. She could hear the Vault door closing behind her as she began to open the door at the other end of the tunnel. She waited until the Vault sealed behind her, and opened the door out into the vast unknown.

The sun burned her eyes even through the sunglasses and she was happy that the Vault Uniform was long sleeved or her pale skin would be easily burned as well, the only thing she needed now was a hat; the heat from the sun burned hot through her lavender-blond hair. There was nothing but rubble and some ghostly houses in the distance. Maybe the Wenton's were right, nothing was getting better out here. Her bad feeling got worse as she stared out into the nothing of the wasteland. She looked at her PipBoy, and switched over to the map. Her father had marked the way to the Capital Building for her. It was a long way from here and with no transportation her journey was going to be much longer then everyone had hoped. "Is there anything I can do for you, Madam?" the Mister Gutsy robot asked.

"Yes, actually, can you scan the area for people and hostile targets?" she asked the robot.

"Certainly, is there anything else before I leave you for a moment?" he asked her.

"No that is all for now." With that the robot disappeared out of site for a moment.

Her first stop was the home of President Washington, it was about 1060 yards away from where she was standing, she looked out in the direction she was to go but saw that there was nothing but some boarded up houses and ghostly remnants of what was once there. When the robot returned with no information, she headed straight following her map until she got to an over pass. "_I should be almost there"_ she thought to herself, "_it's just past this road."_ She came up on the Washington Home surprised to see it still standing in all its glory. It was almost as nice as the posters. She went running up to the house only to find that the doors and windows where boarded completely shut. She began pulling at the boards around the door, she freed them one after another. She got the door completely free and opened it. There wasn't anything special inside; it looked as though it had already been completely picked over by looters.

"Mister Gutsy? Can I call you Gutz for short?" she turned and asked the robot.

"Yes Madam, why do you ask?"

"Well its shorter then saying Mister Gutsy, that is kinda long." She explained to him, "Gutz, I want you to scan the area for anything that I can use as a weapon, and food." She said looking around her. The robot responded to her request and hastily began scanning the inside of the house. The house was very large, and the walls had plaques of information on them, she began to read some but could make out what they were talking about and decided to quit. Gutz came back a while later with a revolver and 20 rounds of ammunition. "I'm sorry Madam, but there were no edible substances on the premises. Should I search again?" He asked handing everything over.

"No… I suppose not we have a long walk to the capital, it will take about two days if we take lots of rests, we might be able to make it in one but we would have to travel all night." She said to Gutz and began out the door. She looked at the marker on her PipBoy and realized it was going to take a lot of will power to make it all the way to the capital alive. Without food it would be nearly impossible. She went out to the highway and began walking in the general direction of the capital. She walked for perhaps fifteen minutes before coming upon an old diner. "Gutz, go scan that area for any life forms please."

"Indeed Madam" Gutz said mechanically and he went out ahead of her. She watched in the distance as Gutz came upon the diner. He disappeared inside for a moment and she could hear his laser. She came up to the building as Gutz came from inside. "There were some hostiles but the area is now secure Madam."

"Thank you, Gutz." She walked into the diner and began searching for food and water. She found some dirty water and boxes of food. It was mostly potato crisps and Mac and cheese, but it was better than nothing. She looked around and found the bodies of the men that Gutz had killed; she leant down next to them and looked at the caps from on them, and wondered why they were carrying so many. She shoved them into her pocket incase she would find some use for them later. She then grabbed the ammunition from their bodies and packed it all away in her suit case. There wasn't really anything useful left so she went back out to the highway and continued her walk.

It took about three hours before she found another area where she could stop and rest. This was exhausting; between running from giant bugs and large scorpions she wasn't sure which was worse, the monsters or the dehydrating heat from the sun, she had already drank her water and eaten some of her food. She would have been a goner if it wasn't for Gutz. Though she did feel bad, and somewhat dumb for trying to shoot a mutated cow with an empty revolver, she hung her head low at the mere thought. That was one thing dad didn't teach her, how to use a gun.

There was a small town that she could see in the distance with a fence around it, she came to the fence and was asked what she was doing by the guard. She simply explained to him that she was traveling to the capital and needed to rest here for a while and possibly get some supplies. Without hesitation the guard let her and Gutz into town.

Before going too far she turned to the guard, "Is there any way that I can earn money here for help to fix my robot? He has taken some of damage in my travels and I need money to have him repaired."

"Well, you could head over to the saloon, maybe you could run some errand for the caps but that is all on the owner. It really doesn't hurt to ask around though, other than that sorry." With that he signaled for her to move on.

"Caps?" she questioned the guard, "What are… Caps? Like for your head?"

He turned to here and laughed, "What? You can't be serious!" he eyed her for a moment taking notice of her Vault Personnel uniform. "Oh… I see, you're one of those vaulties. Yeah, you know bottle caps, we use that as our currency out here in the waste." He pulled a single cap from his pocket and showed it to her. She immediately recognized it as what she had taken off the bodies in the diner earlier. She was rewarding herself in her head for grabbing it even though she hadn't a clue what they were for. She thanked the guard for the information and she made her way over to the saloon. She headed past the small broken buildings, the people walking on as if she wasn't even there. She came upon a building with the large sign, Barry's Saloon. The "S" was hanging off slightly, and it was well weather beaten. She made her way inside, suit case in hand and Gutz following close behind. The saloon was quiet noisy with the laughter of people and the smell of cigarettes hung in the air.

A soft voice came from the left as she made her way across the room, "Hey there sugar, would you like to have a little fun?" The women looked to her with green eyes and a shaved head. Her outfit was heavily tattered, and her face showed a coy smile that seemed like it had seen better days.

"No…No thank you, I am here simply on business!" she said hurried, and she picked up her pace. She made no eye contact as she hurried across the room to the bar room counter. She looked across the counter at the man standing on the other side wiping out a glass. "Excuse me…" she said in a small voice.

"So, you're a new face. Where are you from? Let me guess a Vaultie! I can tell from your pretty little hair cut and perfect smile. Let me tell you we don't take kindly to you people. We hate you almost as much as we hate ghouls. You don't see one of them in the community, now do ya? Didn't think so, your best bet would be to leave." She retracted at this for a moment, and got up to leave. "Hmm… aren't like the rest are you? Most Vault dwellers would just yell and rant at me…so what's your deal kid?" He leaned forward on the counter toward her.

"Well..." she stammered, "I am… heading to the Capital and… well, Gutz my robot, he has taken a bit of damage out there and I need to make some money so I can afford parts to repair him." She explained to him. He leaned back away from the counter for a moment and came back.

"Well kid, I'll tell you what! If you can find the old medical building due west of here and grab us some supplies I can pay you some caps, but it isn't going to be enough to full repair your friend here." He said looking down at her.

"Well, what is the worst that is out there? Nothing I haven't dealt with already right?" she asked him, "Well my PipBoy says it's about a 20 minute walk from here. So I will see you again in… well… I will give myself an hour." She looked at him and smiled, then was off before another word.

"That girl really doesn't know what she is getting' herself into going out to DC. It full of Super Mutants and disgusting Ghouls! First sight of them and she will be back home in no time, heh!" He said to himself as he watched her leave.

"Well Gutz, looks like I will be getting you fixed up after all." She said smiling at her robot, "My map shows a school between here and the target area. Scout on ahead and I will catch up, don't go more than half way to the target area, alright?" she said point off in the direction of the medical building.

"Right away Madam," Gutz replied and was off. Gutz disappeared into the horizon. It wasn't long before she came upon the school building. There were bodies hanging ever where, and blood smeared along the walls. The doors were large and made from steel, she decided to go over and check it out. She walked over to the large steel doors, she grabbed the handles and pushed the doors open. Once inside she noticed a still working Cola machine.

"Hmm…Nu…Ka…Co…La, Nuka? Cola? Well that is a funny name. We don't have this stuff back in the Vault." She said to herself, making out the faded words across the machine. She reached her hand up into the opening at the bottom. There was nothing inside, she tapped on the outside of the machine and hear a small echo. Then something dropped into the hole, she reached in and found a glass bottle with a dark liquid inside. "Hmm… interesting… I wonder if there is more." She began pounding on the machine as hard as she could. Much to her dismay there were none left. She opened her suit case a put the bottle inside.

Just then she heard a voice, "Now I know I heard someone over here, I'm not crazy!" the voice was low and raspy. The footsteps got closer to her, and a man in leather garb came from around the corner. "Ah Ha! I knew someone was in here!" he reached out to grab her by the arm, and then she jumped back away from him. She turned to run out the doors that she had entered and the man wacked her with a lead pipe on the back. She stumble only for a moment then ran out through the doorway. Just in time for a laser to shoot across her nose and hit the man right in the chest.

He went down on one knee, "Man, you're asking for it!" he yelled as he got back up and went after Gutz, who then fired another round into the mans skull.

"Are you alright Madam?" Gutz asked coming over to assist her.

"Yes, Gutz, I'm okay. If it wasn't for you…I'd be a goner." She said looking down at the ground, she could hear the liquid in the bottle sloshing around in her suit case. She looked at her PipBoy and wondered if every place was like this. She was going to need more help getting to the Capital than just Gutz.

"No need to be down Madam, the rest of the way to the medical supply unit is clear. May we continue?" Gutz twirled his appendages, and focused his eye on her.

"Yeah, let's go."

They made their way through the dead trees and the dusty land to the medical supply building. "This must be it. It's a lot closer than the map predicted." She looked at her PipBoy again. The Pipoy had calculated the road route for the time, when she had taken the direct route. "Looks like we will be back sooner then we planned." She said looking at Gutz.

She made her way into the building. The room was bare; she walked across the lobby to the front desk. There was a computer, but the screen was smashed out of it. She stood there and looked across the room. The door to the left of her looked promising. She made her way over to it, around the knocked down bookshelves and rubble from the collapsed ceiling. She tried the door but it was locked. She examined the locked and took a pin out of her hair; she bent it and stuck it into the lock. She sat there for a moment twisting it, then with a click the door was unlocked. She opened the door and went into the room, "Gutz, stay here a keep guard!"

The room was full of boxes, each on was labeled with weird names, some which she recognized from the Vault. She started pulling boxes down; they were all full of various type of medication. Some were radiation reducing agents, while others were ointments to put on burns. There were even some that people put on radiation burns to heal the long term effects of radiation. Asprin, stimpaks, you name it, it was there! She poured the boxes into the suit case and when she was done; her case was so full she could barely close the clasps.

"Well Gutz, looks like we are going back." She said to the robot.

"Indeed Madam."

They hiked all the way back to the Saloon, by the time they got back the sun was just starting to go down. "Hey girl, didn't think you were coming back! So did you get the medicine?" He said walking over to her.

"Yeah, I've got it." she held her case up to him.

"Let's go check it out in the back, shall we!" he led her and Gutz into the back room of the Saloon. He set the case on the table and started going through the supplies. He looked over at her, "Well I am going to give you these, I have never seen these before in my life! You're a smart girl, maybe you can figure out what to do with them." He said closing the case back up and handing it back to her. "Oh and I almost forgot! Your caps, here is 500 caps. You grabbed a lot you earned it." He handed her the caps.

"Thank you very much sir! Now where do I get my Gutsy fixed?" she asked him looking back at Gutz.

"Well there are no supplies around here, but there is a slave compound about 5 hours north of here, in the direction you are headed that might have what you need. The local merchants are headed up that way in a short while maybe you can travel with them for the night. I would hate to see such a kind girl get stuck alone at night in the wasteland." He pointed out the window at the men packing up a Brahmin.

"What is that weird animal?" she asked him.

He laughed at this, "You are too cute!" he stopped laughing and explained to her, "That is a Brahmin, we basically use them as vehicles to transport heavy loads across great distances. You will see lots of traveling merchants with them out in the wasteland. By the way girl, why do you want to go to DC so bad?" he asked her looking at her intently.

"Well, I am the ancestor of the last US president before the war. My family wants to try and restore order; I'm starting to see that it's not going to be easy, if at all possible." She looked out the door to the merchants. "Well if looks like they are just about ready, I have to go."

She started out, "Hey!" she turned to look at the guy, he tossed something to her. "This is for good luck! Figured you would know more about it then I do!" she looked down in her hands; it was wrapped up in brown paper. She undid the paper to see the beautiful colors of the flag. She looked up at him. "It's only part of the Flag, but I figured it would mean more to you if you had it. Now get going before you miss your ride!" He yelled in a playful manner.

She nodded her head and ran out the doors and over to the merchants. "I was told that I could get some company with you guys while I traveled!"

The merchant caravan leader turned to her, "Well I see that you got the word from Barry over there, so I guess you are alright to come. Just don't get in the way." He said to her looking over to the Saloon. Barry was standing in the door way waving to the caravan leader, then showing thumbs up. "Well boys, seems like we have a companion. We are dropping her at Ashdale, and then coming right back here." He waved to the rest of the caravan, and then they started to head out.

The sun was starting to fall in the sky, and it beginning to show a dull grey color. They travelled for miles as the sky turned a dark black and the stars began to full the sky. One of the caravan guards spoke up to her, "You know it wasn't too long ago that the sky cleared up enough to see the stars. For a long time it was clouded still from the nuclear fallout." He stayed close by her and looked up at the stars while they walked next to each other. "By the way, I'm Garret. The leader is Hermer, the other guards name is Chariot. She doesn't talk much to anyone though. Her skills are far past mine." He looked down at her. "Tired, aren't you?" She nodded her head and rubbed her eyes. He lifted her up onto the Brahmin, "You can rest up there, I am sure all of us and your friend can handle things if it gets rough out here." She laid up on the Brahmin watching the stars above her. She rolled onto her stomach and fell fast asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

She woke to the sound of yelling and gun fire as well as the electrical whizzing of Gutz laser flying through the air. She looked off into the distance; the caravan was under attack by raiders. There must have been ten of them all attack the four at once. She heard the crack of Gutz electrical circuit as he was fired upon, and the crash of him falling to the ground. When the dust had cleared the only man standing was Garret, and it was just barely. She jumped down off the Brahmin and ran to him. "Garret! Oh my god you're bleeding heavily! Here let me help." She said reaching into her belt pack for bandages.

"No, I won't make it to Ashdale. You…arrr….aren't strong enough to carry me anyway." He said holding his side. The blood ran between his finger, and drip out the side of his mouth.

"I will get you there with everything I've got!" she bandaged him up the best that she could and brought the Brahmin over. She did her best to push him up on the Brahmin's back; she went over to Gutz remains. "Poor guy…" she grabbed him and pulled him along the ground to the Brahmin. She tied him up so that the Brahmin was dragging him behind.

"Garret, how far to Ashdale?" she said taking the reins on the Brahmin.

"Not much further now, just head north….errr… to those lights!" he said painfully groaning.

She looked out into the distance; it was unreal how close they were to their destination. The night sky was still wonderful, even after all that destruction. "Garret... Hey… look at all those stars" she said as the lights at Ashdale were coming close. There was no response to the man sleeping on the back of the Brahmin. "_I really hope he's not dead!" _She thought to herself; she kept her mind clear and focused on making it to Ashdale. She came up on the front gate to the town, the guard saw the Caravan's Brahmin, but no men. He immediately went running into town for help.

"Alright Zombies get me that Brahmin, and make sure that those two are alright!" a man's voice yelled from beyond the bright flood lights. The sight was horrid, these people, what had they done to these poor people! She froze in her steps looking and three zombies came over and one looked her right in the face. His scowl was deep and his eyes were crystal-like and full of hate. She was taken aback by this, how something like this can survive out in these harsh environments. "Heads down Zombies! You don't want to scare away the customers! Ha!" the voice came again and they immediately hung their heads low and continued on with their work.

One brought Garret down from the Brahmin, he was unmoving. He slung him over his shoulder and brought him inside the town past her field of view. One other guided the Brahmin into the town while the last one, with the empty heart dragged Gutz not too far behind. She was frozen where she was standing. To her it was like the whole world had stopped in an instant, where they monsters or where they people? "My dear girl, aren't you coming in!" that voice rang through again.

She began to walk slowly into the blinding light, covering her eyes. On the other side were rows of gates with these "zombies" and other people inside. Why were they all in cages? She looked around and spotted a man in leather armor. "So you are the owner of the caravan? You don't look like it, but it seems that you have inherited it."

"What do you mean I inherited it? Its Garrets now, not mine!" she said questioning his statement.

"Oh Garret! That's his name? Well I am sorry to tell you this little lady but he isn't quiet…heh… among the living anymore." He said half laughingly. Her face turned ghostly white, and she turned her head to the left slightly. "You haven't been around death much have you? From the look of you, you haven't been in the wastes too long! Ha! Get used to it kid!"

"So what do I do with the caravan? What about my Mister Gutsy, do you have anyone that can help me do repairs to him?" she said trying to push the subject from her mind.

He smiled at her, "No the robot is beyond repair, you can't replace all parts from a clean hole through him! But I can propose something to you if you are worried about it!" he said with a coy and yet sly sentiment.

"What would that be exactly?" she said keeping her distance from him.

He looked her up and down for a moment, "You're a smart girl, but you aren't strong enough to go out on your own. If you trade me the Brahmin and the caravan supplies…"

"The suit case and one pistol are mine though!" she said interrupting him.

"Yes you do need something, I suppose, alright that for one slave! Of my choice!" he said eyeing her.

She stood leaning to one side for a moment, "A slave? These people and… well…" she paused looking at the "zombie" standing next to him; the same one that had stared her in the face no to long before.

"Oh, these, I take it you have never seen a Ghoul before! Ha! Cute! You can call them what you like; Zombie, Monster, Beast, anything you want really!" he said with a grin and an evil tone to match.

"Okay… Ghouls, they are slaves? They will do anything I want? How do I know they won't turn on me?" she asked looking at him trying to calculate what his angle was on the situation.

"Oh these Ghouls, they have been conditioned to listen to every word you say, you just have to be hard on them and enforce rules and they will be faithful as long as you hold their contract." He looked sly and menacing. His hands were shaking with adrenaline, he was expecting her to say "yes", and if she didn't he would make her; or slave her.

"Yes, I have no other options." She said hanging her head down. Now she was out on the supplies of the caravan and Gutz. "Just one thing, can I burry Garret?" she said eyeing him one more time.

"Anything you wish, but before you go to do your little thing. You can stay here until day break, but you best are gone before I slave you as well." He handed her a rolled up piece of paper. He smirked and a ghoul came over with her suit case and a .10mm Pistol. She took her belongings and set them at her feet. She unrolled the paper and read aloud:

The Holder of this Document is the sole owner

Of the property named here:

FALLEN

Under contract the property must function and follow any

Request the contract holder has.

Immense physical violence to the property voids this contract.

The six foot ghoul standing to his right raised his head with surprise. His raspy voice came out with a surprise to Ava. "You want me to go with her, why not Bartand or Grevel!?"

The man turned to Fallen and raised his hand, "Why you…" he raised his voice as his hand went racing toward the ghoul.

She shouted and startled him "Don't put your hands on my property! He's rightfully mine! You have no power over him any longer!" The man stood there in astonishment, and Fallen looked at her with surprise as well. "You come here!" she said in a harsh tone, pointing to Fallen, "Carry my things!"Fallen grumbled and walked over and picked up the suit case and the .10mm Pistol from her feet.

"Now where is Garret." She demanded from the slave master. He pointed to a small green tent to the left of the camp. She began walking over and signaled for Fallen to follow her. She went to the tent and pushed open the flap. Garrets body lied there with a blanket draped over him. She went over to him, and felt his hand, he beginning to get stiff with rigamortis, she knew that burying him soon would be a lot harder then she has once anticipated.

"Ghoul, carry him for me, please." She asked Fallen as she took her belonging from him. Fallen walked over to the corpse and lifted him up onto his shoulders. She led him out of the tent, past the guards and out of the town. They walked about forty feet from the western side of the town and Ava began to dig a hole while Fallen stood holding the stiffening corpse.

"I could dig it for you master," Fallen said with his head titled to the ground and cast his gaze up to view her in his peripheral field of view. The rising sun glistened, a soft glow from her lavender blond hair. She didn't say anything to him; she just kept digging into the ground making sure that the hole was large enough and also deep enough. The sun was turning a brilliant yellow as she finished digging. She walked to Fallen and took the man from him; he could tell that she was straining to pull him into the hole. It was a tight fit, but she managed to fit him in as comfortably as she could. She began to cover him with the dirt that she had pulled up from the earth. Fallen came over the help her fill it in, "Don't help me!" she snapped at him.

Fallen backed away and stood looking away from her. The sun was coming high in the sky when she finally finished burying Garret. She stood next to Fallen, and bowed her head. She looked over to him and elbowed him in the side, "Show some respect!" she hissed. He bowed his head and mulled over in his head them many ways he would kill her when he was finally free or given the chance.

She began to say a few words for the man that was now lying beneath 3 feet of earth. "I only knew him for a short time. About an hour I would say but he shared my first starlit night after so many years of my life being shared in a Vault. He didn't have to treat me with generosity but he did and I will forever be in my mind." She looked up to the sun; her sunglasses shinned almost as bright as her hair. She looked to her PipBoy for the time. It was only eight o'clock in the morning; she gauged the direction they were going to travel in. She turned to face the north, and signaled for Fallen to follow after her. Fallen grabbed her belonging up from the dusty earth and followed close behind.


	3. Chapter 3

The first hour of the walk was silent aside from Fallen huffing while killing wasteland creatures that hoped to have them as a mid-afternoon snack. It was around an hour and a half into the walk when Ava broke the ice, "Sorry…" Fallen was surprised by the suddenness of her apology. "Hey! I have an idea… how about if we go back there, you know where I got you…" she paused for a moment and stopped walking and faced him. "Look at me!" she demanded but in a light tone. "We can go back and free all of your friends…" she looked him in the eyes over the rims of her sunglasses. She had a half squint from the intense light of the sun.

He looked back at her, "You… you're serious?" he questioned trying to judge her.

"I know you aren't stupid… I have a much higher perception than that! I also can plainly see that you weren't conditioned. That man just told me that so I would take one of you. None of you are conditioned, I'm not stupid." She poked him in the chest and got her face to his.

He wanted to shove her down, her smooth skin made him sick. How could she dare want to help with the way she carried herself, the worth of his life alone to her was so low. He couldn't deny her request though, "I will go, if that is what you wish." His raspy voice was low and full of hate for her.

She looked away from him and to the ground, "I could just leave them all there to their fate if you chose it so instead." She searched her mind, she listened to her voice and tried to remember what her decision would have been if she were back in the Vault.

He looked at her, he could see that she was thinking very deeply, "If I said 'Yes'… would I be wrong, master?" he was studying her so close that it was unreal how hard he had to focus on pin pointing what kind of person she was.

She smiled a wide smile, "If is it what you wish then I will make it so, this is the one thing I will give to you in assurance that you will never betray me and the contract that binds you." She could barely believe that she was speaking these harsh words. It wasn't like her, but in the back of her mind she knew that if she was going to survive she would have to be firm and occasionally ruthless.

"I will do this, if you promise to save all of my kind, and leave those smooth ass bastards behind in the dust." He said with almost a menacing voice that made her very core shake. She began back in the direction from which they had come. Fallen stood in his place, unable to believe what was taking place at this moment. He was mulling if it were real or if he was finally going crazy like the Feral's.

"Tell me about what you are? I am dying to know… been in a Vaulted community for my whole life and not once have I read in a medical text about your kind." She said still walking and motioning for him to follow. He caught his pace with her, he was someone astounded.

He began with the simplest thing of all, "I'm human…" she paused in astonishment and whirled around on her heals. She stepped close to him and brought up her PipBoy, she held it to him.

"Your RAD levels are fairly normal, one moment…" she said as she reached deep in her waist pack. She pulled out and empty syringe and grabbed his arm. He watched her with is lavender eyes searching hard for the veins in his arm, they were hard to find but she made one rise the best it seemingly could. She stuck the needle through his tissue and pulled a sample of blood. She removed the needle and reached in her pouch once again for a vile. She uncapped the vile and put the blood inside it, recapped it and stuffed it back in her pouch.

She felt his arm up and down felling the little skin he had left. It was rough, his exposed muscle and tissue was rotten like gangrene. She inspected his body thoroughly with as little as a pause in motion. "Tell me more…" she stated searching his flesh.

"We are heavily radiated people that instead of dying like many others would have we instead were unfortunate enough to live. We live for a longer period of time them most normal humans and many medications are of little to no use to us. Our nerves in most outer parts of our bodies are dead…" she cut him short when she lifted his T-shirt to revel his stomach. Since she was finally looking at him she noticed he wasn't really in as bad of a way as the others that had been at the camp. He has nice pinkish lips left, eyebrows and a great deal of flesh still on his arms and face. For her analysis she was safe to assume that the radiation only hurt the areas that were exposed the most, making his chest and stomach almost untouched, well aside from the couple spots on his chest, and stomach he was in pretty good shape. His face though she couldn't say it was great, but much better than the others. His hair grew in some thick chunks but the rest was fairly thin, it was a beautiful hazel brown, though it was thin it looked as though it might be very soft.

"Can you feel this here?" she asked as she took a pin from her pouch and pressed it lightly into his flesh. He took a hard breath in, and released it as she removed the pressure from the pin. "I take that as a yes…" she took the suit case from him and grabbed a tube of the ointment and a bag of a clear liquid. She took out a syringe and filled it with the clear liquid.

"What are you doing?" he said with a highly worried voice. She went to stick the needle into his upper arm and he jumped away from her, "Answer me first!" he yelled.

"I read books from World War Two and other medical books that sever radiation burns, which is what your skin appears to have, can be treated. You may never look completely human again but I can treat you so your condition has cleared up a bit… Well depending on the depth of the severity." She said this while moving close again and pressing the needle deep into his upper arm. He could feel the needle in the muscle of his arm. The solution she was injecting him with left a warm sensation throughout his arm and moved through his chest.

"What is that exactly? Why do if feel… well…why do I feel that?" he asked her flexing the fingers of his left arm.

"Well this is an anti-bacterial solution that was used once to treat infections such as gangrene and other skin disease. It is flushing your blood of impurities such as, well what you have… if you can feel it that means it working. It should be a warm to sharp feeling but not burning or extremely painful." She said as she pulled the needle from his arm.

"You are in void of the contract!" he said in a high tone, "you're trying to kill me." He pulled the 10mm Pistol to her face.

"Promise I am not trying to harm you… why would you think such a thing?" she said put her hands up and pulling back away from him.

"No smooth skin would ever want to save a ghoul's life. That's why they haven't tried anything yet. I am sure they know how, they just won't try!" he whimpered lightly, "What makes you so different from the rest?"

She pulled back away from him, she could see the look in his eyes, and he was really planning on painting the ground with the matter inside her skull. "YOU AREN'T DEAD YET ARE YOU!!!" she yelled. He brought his hand up on his chest and felt his heart beat. It was rhythmic like always with no sign of slowing any further then it had years ago. He lowered the gun from her face.

"I suppose you have no idea if it will work or not do you?" he looked at her with despair and hate. He wished he had pulled the trigger and showed that smooth skin no mercy, he would be free right now, and he wished that the single hope of being even remotely normal again hadn't stopped him from pulling the god damned trigger. It would have been so easy as to do it and just walk away.

"No I have no idea if it will work, but I will need a lab to find out. With how extensive it appears your skin and tissue damage is I doubt you will get all the feeling back but I will try my hardest for you to get at least enough to feel the wind on your sad face once again. The feel of the sand between your fingers." She looked at him with a sad undertone. He could tell that she was somewhat different from the hours before when she was at the slave town. It was like a switch was flipped in her brain and she was a totally different person. She began rubbing the ointment across his skin and tissue, "I will do what I can to create a serum to renew life to your skin and rebuild your flesh on section of your body at a time. Starting with your left arm. No guarantee it will be like me or other humans, but it will be much better than what you have now, you have my word."

He looked at the way she flowed while she was rubbing the ointment onto his body. In the small areas he had feeling, he was burning slightly, but at the same time it was cool. When she finished she packed everything up and looked Fallen in the face. "If this isn't what you want, tell me and I will stop the treatment immediately…" she turned and began walking again. "Let's save those souls."

He followed close behind her, "You never told me your name…" he said as soft as his voice would allow.

"Ava."

He looked to her has he followed, was she real or was this a dream. A dream that was too good that have come true, "What made you change toward me, is it the fact that I am human?" he asked her.

"Yes, I had never seen a ghoul before I went to Ashdale. I had no idea that things were this bad outside the Vault. I am beginning to think that my purpose here is in a much different area then my family would like to believe."

The rest of the way was quiet; they came up to the town only as far as so they could just see it in the horizon. They sat down under the safety of a rock crevice and waited for the envelopment of the night sky to be their shield.

The darkness was almost void, aside from the small stars that dangled over head. "It's time." She said handing him a pair of wire cutters from her second pouch at her waist. She held a pair in her hand as well. "You know the pattern of the guards better than I do. I want you to go in at the safest angle and clip the wire cage, then I will run ahead and let out the other Ghouls when you have the fence opened enough for me to run in."

They ran across the wasteland toward the town. Upon reaching the back side Fallen began clipping the mesh fence. As soon as the hole was large enough for her to squeeze through she was gone from sight. He continued to cut away a large hole in the fencing.

Ava ran around to each cage, as she came from cage to cage she gave specific instructions for each of them to leave one at a time from the hole that she created at the bottom corner of each cage. She told them where to meet Fallen outside. While they were all finding their escape she snuck around to the Brahmin from the caravan and took as many pistols as she could hold. She quietly made her way around the fence of the town to where the hole was and ran out to see that there was no one in sight. She felt abandoned and she fell to her knees, _"This was all for nothing!"_ she thought, the Fallen's voice came followed by his running footsteps.

"I brought them all out a distance so they wouldn't be seen, they will be waiting near the rocks where we waited." He said quickly and out of breath. He took the pistols from her. They both started running as fast as they could. It wasn't long before they heard the alarm of the town. The flood lights began searching the wasteland for anything and everything. The lights spotted them in the distance; they ran as fast as their legs could carry them.

Fallen's feet went further and faster than his masters, he reached the other Ghouls and handed each of them a loaded pistol. He waited for Ava to appear next to him. She was breathing so heavily, "Maybe this was a bad idea…" she panted, "I don't know how long I can run; a Vault doesn't exactly have anywhere to run." Fallen picked her up onto his back and began to run with all the other Ghouls following close behind. There were maybe ten of them in total, including Fallen.

His mind was racing; he wanted to know what he was doing. He was following a smooth skin around and…and… was he enjoying it? His mind couldn't rest as he ran. The sound of the alarms where distant now; they were far out of the reach of the flood lights. He knew that the slave master would be sending out a team to retrieve his property so they didn't have time to rest. He wanted to run for at least ten more minutes if everyone could hold out. But would he? He had never had to carry another person before or ever had to run for this long. He lasted the whole ten minutes and slowed down with the others, he set Ava down on the ground and turned to her.

"We did it Fallen! We did it!" she cheered; she jumped up and hugged him around the neck, "I knew we could!" Why did he feel so flustered, hours ago he hated even the thought of her being around, but now his view was starting to slowly change.

One of the Ghouls in the group spoke up, "Where are we going to go now?"

Ava stood strong, "well I know that I am going to go to the DC ruins! You can all follow if you like, but now you are free go where you want to." The Ghouls looked at each other puzzled; they had never gone anywhere that wasn't with an owner in ages.

"We will travel with you to DC, there is a small village of Ghouls there called Underworld. If we go we can live there without worrying about being found by the smooth skins again…err…" the Ghouls grumbled together in agreement.

Ava sat on the ground and began writing in the sand. She was calculating the remaining distance from the where they were to the DC ruins. "Well it will take about eight and a half hours to walk all the way to DC from where we are if we walk none stop…"

Fallen broke in, "but there is a place about five hours from here, a Shopping Plaza in VonDorn. We can rest there and get food and supplies." The Ghouls all grumbled to each other and settled to the agreement with the plan. They walked for long periods, carrying one another taking turns as the other got tired. The whole five hours in the dark was grueling. Fallen marked the PipBoy with the location so that he knew they would be on target. Ava was fast asleep hanging on loosely to the ghoul, Fallen thought about how small she was. He estimated about five foot three inches, and was only ninety pounds if she was lucky. She had such little muscle mass that her weight was extremely low; he could feel in her legs that she was all skin and bones. The only thing that made her seem like she had weight on her was her Vault uniform, he felt sad for her that she had been without nutrition longer than anyone he had ever met.

Ava raised her head off his back and looked over his shoulder, she could she looming buildings in the distance, and they were much darker in shape than the rest of the sky. She couldn't see any light from the area, she looked down at her PipBoy to be sure that this was place that they were heading for, and it seemed that they were right on track. "You sure you marked the right spot?" she asked with tired eyes.

"I'm sure, don't worry about it," he said picking up the pace, all the ghouls began grumbling amongst each other as they came up on the shopping plaza. Everything was silent, almost too quiet; Fallen knew exactly where he was going though. He made his way quietly to a pair of large steel doors on the West side of the first building.

She could hear the shuffling of something in the distance, "What's that noise?" she whispered to Fallen over his shoulder. The ghouls that were at the rear turned and guarded the tail end of the group with pistols drawn.

"Centaurs," he said quietly as he pushed the large doors open. The shuffling came closer, and a deep gurgle came from the darkness behind them as a large monster appeared from the depth from what seemed like a dark abyss. Fallen dropped Ava where she stood and shoved her through the doors into complete darkness. She could see the light of the moon hitting the creature through the opened from which she had been thrusted violently. It was hideous, the length of the body reminded her of some sort of centipede, and it many limbs thrashing about violently in the direction of it prey pushing some ghouls away like they were mere dolls. The flash of bullets firing from the pistols illuminated the darkness for only split seconds, and then it was over almost seemingly as quick as it had begun. Fallen stood tall in the faint light from the sky and cast his shadow upon her. The other ghouls were quickly picking up their comrades and rushing them into the building before more creatures had the chance to come upon them.

Fallen reached out to help Ava from the ground, but she dismissed his help and pulled herself up. She turned on the light built into her PipBoy and filled the giant room with a small circle of light. She looked around and it seemed like the room was endless, the light from her wrist only reached so far and there seemed like there wasn't anything around, almost like being in Limbo. Fallen closed the giant doors and head past her into the darkness.

He thought to himself, "_What is her problem? One minute she wants to help me and have my help in return. Then the next minute she is just like any other smooth skin pushing my kind around like she own the whole world."_ She pressed past him bumping into him with her arm; she was looking intently into the face of her PipBoy as if she was in a trance.

"Are you completely sure that this is where we should be? It seems that there seems to be no signs of life in the area at all…" as she spoke the room echoed with the reverberation of her voice.

"Don't worry we still have to go much deeper into the building, the others are most likely already there, since you are spending your time procrastinating with your little arm watch!" he said hatefully to her.

She whirled around and looked at him, she took her sunglasses off and her blue eyes seemed like they pierced the dark. "This," she started in a high and mighty tone, "this is one of the most advanced pieces of technology I have seen out here so far, how could you possible group it down in with a simple watch… which by the way only tells time, this has a map!" She realized after speaking that the argument wasn't so spectacular. A map! She felt dumb it tells time and has a map, which was all she could say to back up her argument. She sunk her head for a moment, she could have mentioned that it could detect radiation and the other amazing things it could do; but no she mention the map! Talk about taking her intelligence down a couple notches.

Fallen laughed at her in his throat and continued past her, "_She wasn't as smart as she came off to be was she?"_ he thought to himself. He disappeared into the darkness.

"You!" she said running up behind him, "You don't go anywhere without me, do you hear me, scab?" she said with a glare that could seemingly freeze a man's blood. He figured he had been called worse in the past but he knew it was meant to heavily insult him. He found himself pondering the thought that maybe he should have laid her brain across the wasteland when he had the chance before, and his seemingly new outlook on her began to fade in his mind.

"As you wish, Ava…" he said in a low tone and looked down to the ground. They made their way across the massive room to another set of huge doors. Fallen pulled the doors open and a large amount of orange light spilled into the darkness. The room was crowded with man and ghoul alike, the ghouls that had been traveling with them were near a medical supply area some trading their pistols for the supplies to heal the injuries their comrades had attained. Some other were standing near the door waiting for everyone to regroup so they knew what they were going to do next. She went to the medical supply with Fallen close at hand. She took her suit case from him and traded her bonnet, blue dress, dress shoes and the revolver she had forgotten about for all the ointment and bags of the strange clear liquid.

"Young lady," the medical supplier started, "You do realize that those ointments have no real use to anyone right, nor does that other stuff. Frankly I haven't met anyone that knows of their purpose yet… it a waist of your time and money!" she looked at the supplier and smiled.

"Well I have an advanced scientific and medical background, not all things left over from the war are supposed to work right away you know? Have you ever stopped to think this is an extremely slow acting medication?" she looked at the supplier.

He scoffed at her, "Yeah right, what slow acting medication would have any relative use out there, you aren't very right in the head are you? Move along." He said waiving her away to make room for the next customer.

She looked at Fallen, who still had his head hanging low, "You're right aren't you, no one cares about what anything does if it doesn't see immediate results. No one cares about cures that could take years, they all want it now!" Fallen looked up at her through his peripherals, and nodded slightly. "It's their loss, I can see many victims of regular fire burns in his tent and he could easily use these products to cure them so the scaring and infection isn't severe but no one cares."

Fallen looked at his feet, "_It's not like I'm a liar you smooth skin fucking bitch!" _He thought in his head, he wanted to strangle the life out of her for being so dumb. Instead he suggested, "Why don't we camp here for the rest of the night? If that is what you wish."

"You know zombie that just might be a good idea. It will give us the rest of the night to rest and them we have the light of day so we can see our enemies before they can ambush us again." She said treating him like a small child. He was furious, what was her deal, was that nice girl routine just so she could gain his trust or was that a figment of his imagination. He mulled over it for a while, as they found a place to rest for the night. The ghouls all huddled in one end of the room while she slept on the couch at the other end. They kept their distance from her, like she carried a horrible disease.

Ava fell asleep very quickly on the couch. Fallen looked at her, she had one leg up on the back of the sofa and her arm draped over her face. It would be so easy to just cut her throat and just walk away like nothing ever happened. He sat against the wall watching her for hours while the other ghouls slept across from him. She tossed and turned seemingly haunted in her dreams, "_Good," _he thought, "_The bitch deserves the nightmares, heh."_ He scoffed out loud and leaned his head back. The only reason he hadn't killed her yet was the promise of having a somewhat normal life again. Could she have been… possibly sincere? He sat for a long time before closing his eyes a drifting asleep.

Ava's eyes snapped open feeling the touch of someone hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see a man standing above her, "Excuse me," he started, "But how much for one of the ghouls?" the man had a rough looking face and his armor was dirty. "Sorry to wake you, I am a mercenary looking for a ghouls slave to bring with me to the capital."

She sat up straight and looked him in the eyes, "Leave my sight," she said in a groggy voice. He was surprised.

"I want one of your slaves… I will give any amount you ask!" he told her seemingly annoyed.

"Piss off! They aren't slaves any longer, I liberated them and I am bringing them to Underworld, they aren't for sale." She said, now annoyed that he was still standing her space. He pulled out a revolver and pointed it at her.

"Then you won't mind if I just take one will you?" he did a deep laugh in his chest, then he was silent as the blunt end of a 10mm was pressed against the side of his head. He brought his hand up and looked through the corner of his eye at the ghoul pressing the gun to his head.

"Master, I can kill him if it is what you desire" Fallen said standing tall and firm near the mercenary.

"No…" she said, and both the mercenary and Fallen were shocked. "I want him to leave me the hell alone and never comes back, then if he does feel free to blow his head clean off his shoulders. At least then you can relieve some of that tension cause from following me around…" she said stretching.

"I will gladly escort him from your presence then, Master." Fallen said pressing the gun hard pushing the mercenary's head slight to one side. Mercenary smiled nervously then turn away to leave with Fallen following close after him. "_So she knows that I have so much tension with her why does she keep pushing me, she drive me fucking crazy…"_ he thought as he pushed the mercenary out into the crowd of people.

She walked over to the pile of sleeping ghouls, "Hey!" she said kind of loudly. They were startled and all scrambled to their feet. "Well… I only wanted you guys to wake up… not well, die of fright. I'm not going to beat you!" she said with one eyebrow raised. She placed her sunglasses on her face, as Fallen came back into the room. "Shall we make our way out to Underworld?" she asked Fallen.

"If it is what you wish." He said hanging his head and looking away from her. She patted him on the back as if to say good boy.

"Well then let's go everyone!" she said in a cheerful manner. She started out the door with everyone following close behind her. The large room on the outside of the small community was illuminated by the sun falling through the cracks in the ceiling. She could see everything, the other stores with mannequins and broken windows boarded up and yet the area seemed like it went on forever. It all its destructive glory it was beautiful with the streams of the morning light flooding through.

"So it will take about three hours to get to this Underworld place. What exactly is there?" she asked Fallen as they made their way out into the bright light of the wasteland. The body of the centaur lay in the small area that it was slain the night before. She could see that beyond the plaza was the same crap that she had been seeing the last two says since she left the Vault.

"Well, Underworld is a safe haven for ghouls. Smooth skins rarely travel down that way from what I know and it deep within the ruins of the capital wasteland. Not many people make it there alive so it is fairly safe for ghouls…well side from the occasional Super Mutant…" he told her.

She looked at him, "You certainly know a lot, have you been in the capital wasteland before?" she questioned him. Her tone was that sweet girl tone again.

"Yeah, I was born there… before I became what I am now." He told her, she thought of once being human had been erased from his mind a lot time ago. It had been nearly thirty years since he could feel, and be with other people. He couldn't believe it had really been that long, by now anyone and his family was most likely dead or getting there.


	4. Chapter 4

"So… do you have any family at Underworld?" she asked him somewhat hesitantly. The situation was somewhat tense when he didn't respond right away. "Well… you don't have to answer…" she said quietly. "I have a little brother, he is fourteen. Him and my parents are waiting for me to come back after visiting the capital and bring them to the white house. They want to reclaim the wasteland…" she went quiet for a moment, "I… I don't think it's going to work the way they think it will."

She was quiet the rest of the way, things were amazingly tense between Fallen and Ava until they reached the edge of the capital wasteland. She looked around into the decaying city lying to waste in front of her. Her dreams where crushed down even further than they had already been. She stopped in her tracks and let everyone else go ahead of her.

Fallen looked slightly to his right and noticed she wasn't following any longer. He rushed to her; he face was pale and melancholy. "Are you going to be alright, Master?" Fallen asked her standing tall in front of her, his shadow cast down upon her like a blanket.

She snapped out of the depressive state that she was in and looked into his face, "Yeah, I will be fine, Fallen. Just took me by surprise to see the city in ruins like this. I always imagined the city to look more like the pictures back in the vault, not a graveyard." She started walking again, Fallen watched her. Her shoulders were somewhat slumped and her feet dragged behind her.

He felt sorry for her out of nowhere, "_Maybe she had more heart then I once thought?"_ he shook this thought from this head. Of course not, that why he was her slave right? God this made him so furious, she was the most confusing person he had met in his whole life. He came up behind her and lifted her up in his arms, and carried her some of the way into the DC ruins. They reached an area with a pyramid shape sticking out the ground; Ava immediately began to wiggle away from Fallen. She landed on her feet and went over to the structure that was sticking out of the ground. "Hey! Don't go running away from me like that. You could get nabbed by a Super Mutant!" just as he said that the ghouls all ran and hid. The growl coming from behind them was never a good sign. "Everyone! Run just stay close to me!" Fallen yelled.

The massive monster came running out; it was large with yellowish skin. It held a large board with many nails sticking through it. Fallen started to run the other ghouls following right behind him, Ava stood stunned for a moment then gathered herself and began to run. "Oh Shit" she gasped as she tripped on a piece of debris. The monster raised its arms above itself as it came upon her. The large crack of a gun sliced through the air. The monster stood for a moment and stumbled, it looked it the direction of where the shot had been fired. Blood poured from a hole in it head, enraged it charged toward the person standing with a combat shot gun in hand, and strange armor covering him. A second shot was fired and the monster went down.

Ava pulled herself from the ground; she could see Fallen turned in the distance looking in her direction; the other ghouls further out if sight still fleeing into the city. He started running back to her; the person in the armor beat Fallen to her. He stopped an instant, and then began walking over cautiously.

"Ma'am, are you alright?" a male voice came from inside the metal suit. He held his weapon in one hand and placed the other on her shoulder.

"Yeah," she said to him shaken, "Thank you so much, if you weren't here I don't think I would have survived. Actually I am 100 percent that I would not have lived…"

He threw his weapon up and pointed it in the direction of the ghoul coming up on them. Fallen had his hands risen above his head, in a surrendering fashion. "Hey… don't come any closer of I will paint the plaza with your rotten corpse, zombie…"

"Hold it just one second," Ava said stepping into his line of fire, "That "zombie" is my property! You have to go through me to get to him." She put her arms out straight on either side of herself; her thin wrists and PipBoy shown as clear as day.

"Damn, Brotherhood scum!" Fallen mumbled under his breath.

"What did you say to me? You no good fucking zombie!" the Brotherhood shouted raising the weapon above Ava's head aiming it right at Fallen.

"You heard me," he said smugly, "Your scum, always causing problem and making matters worse."

The man tightened his grasp on his weapon and put his finger on the trigger. Ava shoved him back as hard as she could, he didn't move much but he got the picture. She was willing to risk her own life for that of a slave ghoul. "This isn't worth my time!" he huffed then marched off into the distance to join up with other brotherhood members that made themselves apparent as he moved into the distance.

"You!" she whipped around and pointed her finger into Fallen's face, "You are not to cause more problems than we already have. This is the one and only time I am going to warn you of that. I don't need you or I getting our heads blown off!" she growled at him. He backed away and sunk his head down.

"I was trying to get away from you!" he mumbled out of the side of his mouth.

"What was that? Did you talk, I didn't ask you to talk! You are my property you will listen from this point on, I am done bending the rules, I see now that the slave trader was right, I do have to be completely hard and firm with you!" she pushed on his chest with her finger. Her thin finger pressed hard into his sternum made him cringe, not out of fear per-say but more so he didn't want her to piece his chest with the pressure. He didn't exactly have the best protection to his body from the radiation.

"Let's go, the other are waiting for us." She demanded.

"Well," he spoke up, causing her to freeze in her tracks, "I told them where to go and they went on ahead…" he pulled his head down lower and she turned quickly back to him.

"Well, at least I know everyone is safe…" she let Fallen lead them both to Underworld.

They made their way through the decrepit city, and she still couldn't believe that this is what had become of DC. She wasn't sure if she would have the strength and of course not the man power to bring the city back into its prime. She looked forlorn at the Washington Monument as they passed it by. It was covered by large gaping holes, with the exposed beams standing out then sky seen as clears as day through it.

"Come on we've got to hurry, Super Mutants are crawling all over this place!" he growled at her, and started rushing her along. They came up on the front of the Museum of History; they entered in the lobby at the reception desk. The room was completely destroyed, well aside from the desks themselves. They continued in the wide door way beyond the desks and into the museum's main room. The left over pieces of the exhibits looked amazing; things from the past always seemed to amaze her. She looked forward to the giant skull above a set of double doors. She inhaled heavily and swallowed hard at the eerie sight.

Fallen put a hand on the door and felt her run into him softly. "You aren't afraid are you?" he smirked, "_Not so tough now are you?"_ he said in his head. He pulled the door to Underworld open slowly and walked in, she followed him silently. A Mister Gutsy robot greeted them as they entered into the large room.

"The other ghouls told me what you had done for them," a male ghoul's voice came from her left; she turned to see a ghoul wearing a leather armor outfit. He was leaning against the wall next to the doorway; he had a shoot gun strapped to his back and didn't look like he was the kind of person that you would want to have a personal vendetta against you. "So this is the last free ghoul?" he asked her setting his gaze on her heavily.

"Not exactly," Fallen started, "I was traded to her under contract." The ghoul standing next to the door stood up straight and approached her. He looked extremely menacing as he towered above her.

"I don't take kindly to normals taking my people in as slaves, and coming around this place." He said to her pulling the shoot gun off his back.

She started backing up away from him frantically, "Wait! Wait! WAIT!!! It's not what you think! Fallen tell him it's not like that," she begged, Fallen stood silent.

_"Good now I'm gonna be free from her!" _ He cheered in his head.

"Fallen if you let him kill me you will never ever be anywhere close to normal ever!" she yelled.

"_FUCK" _Fallen cursed, he put a hand on the ghoul's shoulder, "I have a deal with her so I kind of need her alive," Fallen said to him in a low voice. The ghoul backed off and put his gun away and went back to where he was standing before. Fallen came over to Ava, "You're lucky I remembered what you were talking about. Your kind isn't really that appreciated down here." He told her in a whisper.

"So you were just going to let me die!" she hissed at him quietly, "Why are we whispering?!" she screeched in a low tone. The ghoul standing at the door shot a look in her direction. "Let's go somewhere before he decides he wants to kill me again, please?" she said to Fallen looked around him.

"Yes, as you wish…" he growled at her. He lead her up the stairs and in the first door at the top of the stairs with a sign next to it reading: Carol's Place. He walked over to the counter, "Good evening ladies, got anything good to eat…well that she won't mind?"

"Hey! That's not right, who owns who here?" Ava stepped in, "I'm my own person I can get my own stuff…" she said dropping caps on the counter. "Carol, I assume? Do you have any potato crisps; I like those, oh and a water as well please." She turned to Fallen, "what would you like?" she glared at him.

Carol sighed, "Here you are ma'am." She stood waiting for Fallen to answer.

"I'll have a Nuka Cola and some squirrel stew, if you have any" he said to Carol.

"Oh!" Ava exclaimed and grabbed her suit case from him, "You want this?" she said holding up the Nuka Cola that she had found days earlier.

"You had that on you the whole time! I've been parched!" Fallen exclaimed, "If I knew you had it I would have asked for it earlier!"

"Well I didn't know what it was! Hey and don't yell at me, who has your freakin' papers?" she snapped back at him, he took the Nuka Cola from her hand.

"So I take it you won't be needing one then, are you alright taking a seat while Greta gets your soup ready for you?" Carol asked him.

"Yeah, it's not a problem we'll just go sit down at the table until its ready." Fallen told her as he place a few more caps of his own down to cover the extra charge. He went over to the table with Ava following closely in hand. They both sat down together, Ava dropped her bag of crisps down on the table and set her water bottle down next to it. "So you mean to tell me you had all those nice posters and stuff where you come from, and you never heard of Nuka Cola?" he questioned her across the table.

"Hey! We had a lot but we didn't have everything! Give me a break…" she said opening up the box of crisps, she rolled her sleeve up exposing her thin arm. It was almost like looking at a feral but without the skin discoloration.

Greta came to the table with the soup that Fallen had ordered; Ava looked down at the table when she came over. "Here you are dear." She said to Fallen and she set the soup down on the table. Fallen nodded a small thank you to her then she walked away to go stand next to Carol again.

"You know… you don't have to be like that to ghouls. It makes you seem like just another fucking human." He whispered across the table at her. He took the crisps from her and set the bowl of soup in front of her. "Eat this, you need to gain some weight or you will never be able to make it out there being so thin."

She looked down at the grayish colored, gelatinous mixture that was in the bowl in front of her. "No thanks, I'll pass." She said snatching the box of crisps back from him and shoveling them into her mouth. He took the soup back and began to spoon it into his mouth, he stopped for a moment and watched her pour even the crumbs into her mouth. It was a pretty sad sight that she was so hungry that even the stale crumbs were like a banquet to her. He continued eating until every last spoonful was completely gone. He looked at her across the table to realize that she had been analyzing him for the last couple minutes.

"So…" she started then took off her sunglasses. "How does food taste to you? Is it the same as you remember from when you were normal or can you not taste?"She asked him swallowing a swig of water from the bottle that was in her hand.

"Yeah, I can taste things just fine, why?" he said somewhat uninterested in her. This was worse than being at a doctor's office.

"Intriguing!" she exclaimed then reclined back in the chair with the front two legs lifted off the ground. She rolled her head back and put her right hand on her forehead.

"What? You make no sense sometimes, we aren't fucking dead we can taste and feel, we cry and hurt just like you. It's just that our skin is different; we aren't some sort of failed science experiments." He grumbled at her.

"Well," she said jolting forward in the chair, "that was a great meal, now what? It's not like I can just walk up to the capital and be like can I have my presidency back please. It won't be that easy, speaking of…" she stopped for a second, and looked around. "Where is my suit case?" Fallen pointed over to the counter where Carol and Greta were talking.

"Oh I knew that," she said embarrassed. She got up and walked to the bar, nodding politely to Carol and Greta as she pick up her suit case. She came back over to Fallen and placed the case on the table and grabbed some ointment and a bag of the liquid out of it.

"Oh it's time for that again, this is going to be a daily thing isn't it?" he asked her in a monotone voice. She had a mind that bounced from one thing to the other so quickly he couldn't keep up. It was like being around a small child with an attitude problem.

"Sorry," she said as she prepared a needle for him. As she was preparing the needle a ghoul in a white pin stripe suit came into the second doors to the shop. The ghoul grumbled at her as she pressed the needle into Fallen's arm and injected him with the liquid. He continued past her as she was readying the ointment for Fallen's left arm.

"Why are you doing this one area at a time again?" Fallen asked her brushing off the cold look of the ghoul.

"Well if this ointment does lessen the radiation burn on this arm then I know it will be okay to use everywhere else...well I am not sure about…well…" she stopped, and started rubbing Fallen's arm down with the ointment. The ghoul that had past them before leaned on the counter chatting with Carol and watching what they were doing.

"One second Carol…" they heard him say from across the room, he approached them. "What are you doing here smooth skin?" he asked looking Ava in the face.

"What aren't I doing here?" she said to him smugly.

"Ava, what are you doing? You could get us kicked out for picking a fight…" Fallen said to her in a low voice.

"Is this what I think it is? You hold him as a slave, how did you get Charon to let you in this far?" He asked squinting at her, "What do you have there?" he asked swiping the tube of ointment from the table.

"Well," Ava started, "I am doing an experiment…"

"Experiment!" he exclaimed, "You cruel whore… what do you expect to accomplish with this tube of whatever the fuck!?"

"Hey! I'm not cruel, it's completely harmless, and it's just a high potency burn cream and some antibiotics. I am doing a trial run to return a favor here for your…kin?" she was unsure what to call them seeing as how they didn't know each other and she didn't want to seem rude.

"Is that so… I have never heard of these medications, where did you get them?" the ghoul asked her now quiet interested.

"I got them on my way here from an area about five hours south from here." She explained to him.

"She wants to find a way to cure ghouls…well… if not cure us, lessen then stigma at least" Fallen added in. The ghoul raised his "eyebrow" at this.

He turned to walk away, "The names Crowley by the way."

"Wait," she walked after him, "You're just going to walk away?"

"I can see that you are obviously crazy…" he said to her over his shoulder and headed out the main doors of the shop.

"Well he was definitely strange," she said as she went back over to Fallen. She grabbed his left arm again and began feeling for the pulse in his elbow. She took his blood pressure, "Well it seems that you aren't having any reactions to the medication so it is safe to say that you don't have an allergy to it."

"Or it's not working… ghouls have a high tolerance to things such as jet. They are basically unaffected." He told her looking straight into her eyes. God they were so blue, it was trance like how they took you in.

"You could have told me stuff like that earlier; I might have to make some adjustment to the medications…"

"Wait! I did tell you earlier! You can make and adjust medications? Why aren't you doing that and selling it to druggies and making loads of caps!" Fallen cried out, putting a hand on his face.

"Wait… people use drugs for other purposes here?" she said wide eyed, "that is incredible… and stupid…" she sat there puzzled with her arms crossed in front of her. "You know what," she said yawning, "I am tired all of a sudden…"

He was astonished, "Okay… that was out of the blue… Wait! You sleep more than any other person I have ever meet, are you sure you don't have some sort of sickness of something?" he questioned her looking at her from where he was seated.

"Yeah mom said the same thing, but I can assure you that I am fine. Dad told me it was from my low body nutrients and stuff. I don't really like to eat too much; got used to it when I was younger I always gave up my rations so I knew my brother would have food." She looked down at her thin wrist and she looked very saddened at the sight.

"Hey, if you need sleep, then I guess you need sleep…"

She cut him off, "Nah lets go look around or something I am sure there are some pretty amazing places here, do you think?"

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Suuure," he said in a somewhat sarcastic manner. They both got up from their seats, gabbed their garbage and tossed it out. "Here before we go anywhere I just wanna finish his so I'm not carrying it around." He poured the last of the Nuka Cola down the throat and tossed the bottle in the trash as well. She ran back for her suit case and carried it for herself instead of having Fallen carry it.

They headed out the secondary door of Carol's place and went down the hall. "Ninth Circle?" she reached out to the door and pulled it open. A cloud of cigar smoke hung lightly in the air, "Oh a bar! You know I have never had a drink in my life before, let's get one!" she exclaimed. She entered and looked around, "_Oh no, it's the ghoul with the gun again!"_ she began to sweat as this thought passed through her.

"This isn't going to end well you know?" Fallen said to her as they approached the bar and got a seat.

A ghoul came up to the counter, "The names Ahzrukhal let me know if I can get you guys anything." Told them, "Oh and if you cause us any trouble I am going to have to have Charon 'see you out' if you get what I mean." Ahzrukhal said eyeing Ava and pointing to Charon.

Ava looked down at the bar counter and swallowed hard, she could hear the faint music playing from across the room as Fallen spoke up, "Do you have anything light? She hasn't drank in a long time and I don't want her getting out of hand… and for myself I'll have some whiskey" Fallen said to Ahzrukhal out rightly teasing Ava.


	5. Chapter 5

Ahzrukhal came back to them with their drinks, "A glass of wine for the lady and some whiskey for you, friend…" Ahzrukhal set the drinks on the table and put a hand out, Fallen placed the caps in his palm. "Thanks, just yell if you need anything else."

"Now you drink that nice and slow alright…" Fallen started to tell Ava, he looked to her and noticed the glass was already empty.

"Hey that was pretty good! Can I have some more?" she asked Fallen, he was wide eyed, and took a swig of his whiskey.

"Hey Ahzrukhal can you get the little lady a beer, I think she can hold her own," Fallen said in bewilderment, Ahzrukhal gave her the beer and accepted Fallen's caps.

She took a taste of it and cringed, "Mmm, it's strong…" she took another drink, and then a beer and a half later she was doing her best just to stay on the bar stool.

"I told you this wasn't going to end very well," he said. "You're dunk and now I am stuck babysitting!"

"I'm is not drunk," she said leaning over to him, "What didn't I tell you!?" she screamed, "about the mouthing with them… that… words, I didn't say anything to you!" she said drunkenly bobbing around. He face was flush and her palms were sweaty as she put a hand on his arm to keep her balance.

"I understand, master, but you aren't doing too well." He was trying to be nice to avoid her getting out of hand.

"God, my cloths feel like they are all wrinkly, I need to take them off!" she whistled in a drunken stupor, she began to undo her Vault Tech uniform.

Fallen reached out to her, "Hey we are in front of lots of other ghouls, they won't like it if you get naked. Let's go somewhere else if you wanna change your cloths." He hurried; Ahzrukhal lifted an eyebrow from beyond the counter.

"No let her, we haven't seen a peep show in ages, and let me tell you from looking around you wouldn't want too." Ahzrukhal said to Fallen in a laughing tone.

"She…Fallen, this there… what do you call it again…?" she asked bobbing around.

"Ghoul" Fallen replied less then amused.

"Ghouls don't mind, I'm just… just…" she giggled, "warm…" she said undoing her uniform. Fallen blushed and looked away from her. Ahzrukhal just laughed with and started in on her with some playful banter.

"You know you could sit up here on the bar," he said coyly at her.

"Really? But I thought it was rude to sit on tables! That's what my daddy told me…" she said pulling the sleeve over her PipBoy and the rest of the way off her arm.

"It is, he's just getting you going," Fallen murmured. He was less than thrilled at what was taking place, but he really didn't want to take the chance at causing a scene.

"Oh don't listen to him, he just doesn't want you to have fun," Ahzrukhal jeered, "Charon go get the other guys! They aren't going to want to miss this for anything." Ahzrukhal chirped at Charon.

"Yes, I will return." Charon said to Ahzrukhal and went out the door.

"You don't want me to have fun?" Ava asked Fallen taking her other sleeve off and letting the uniform dropped, it folded at the waist where her utility belt was. "Can you help me? I can't unclip my belt…" the other male ghouls came rushing in to see what was going on.

"I'll help you out, just hop up here and I will get that for you." Ahzrukhal purred to her. She climbed up in the counter taking Ahzrukhal's hand for balance. The other ghouls began crowding in, those in exception where Charon, the doctor and a few other residents who knew too well what Ahzrukhal was doing, putting on a show to embarrass the poor woman.

He unbuckled her utility belt and let it drop behind her, it slid off the counter and Fallen caught it before it fell to the floor. Fallen looked up to see her bare and kneeling on the counter, he was immediately flustered and found himself unable to look away. Ahzrukhal pushed bottles aside and had her sit so he could take the uniform the rest of the way off. It dropped off her feet along with her shoes on the other side of the bar counter.

"Here, drink this..." Ahzrukhal said giving her a shot glass, "It's on me…" the other ghouls watched her cheering all the while. She drank down the clear liquid in the glass and shook her head.

"What was that?" she asked him tilting her head back, she pulled the tied out of her hair with one hand and let the blond hair fall down to the mid of her back. Her thin body was scarred on her stomach, left thigh and left upper arm. Fallen did everything he could to look away from her. She was thin and seemed more so like a circus attraction to the ghouls. They all swarmed her waiting for what she was going to do next. It had been ages for most since they had seen a show like this, and they got very excited to see her act like a fool.

"I gave you so scotch, did you like it?" Ahzrukhal adjusted himself below the counter; he poured her more and gave it to her. She drank it down and shivered this time.

"It makes my chest all warm and fuzzy," she said wobbling and running a hand down her chest. The ghouls all cheered, and huffed impatiently, they wanted more. He helped her turn around on the counter so she was facing everyone else.

"That's enough!" Fallen stood abruptly, "This girl has no idea what you are doing to her! Show 's over!" Fallen shouted over everyone, they all booed him. He brushed it off and he stood between her legs and pulled her toward him, "Hold on to my neck." He demanded her.

"No!" she retorted, "you wanna ruin my fun! This nice gentlemen told me!" she pushed him away, unbudging he took her wrist and pulled her close to him.

"If the girl wants to stay she can, she owns you…doesn't she?" he looked at Fallen with a smug lipless smile.

"Yeah, you do what I say…you are mine!" she moaned at Fallen.

"Why don't you tell him to watch? Maybe he will start to have fun too!" Ahzrukhal whispered evilly to her. She sat on the counter and watched Fallen; he stood waiting for her to say something.

"Sit," she said to Fallen, "Sit here in front of me. You watch, you have fun too!" she was far beyond drunk and Fallen could see that if it were any other moment she would not have gone with this. She was being far too nice to him for starters.

"Why don't you sit on his lap and give him something to hold," Ahzrukhal said chuckling and looking into Fallen's face. She slid off the counter and sat on Fallen's lap facing him, "Now give him a little dance girl. For everyone! It'll be fun." He chuckled. The other ghouls all laughed at the girl, it was amusing to see a human like her being so easily manipulated, and "normals" thought ghouls had low intelligence.

"You know Ahzrukhal; you have a little too much fun with these smooth skins." Crowley leaned to him around the bar. "It's kind of disgusting, it was alright the first couple minutes now I am starting to think that you are enjoying this more then a ghoul should." Ahzrukhal smiled, and Crowley left the room out the door past Charon. Charon lifted his head to look through the crowd at his master. He was sickened by how he could so easily take advantage of people without feeling any shame.

"Ava, don't" Fallen begged, "You don't have to do this." He was trying to keep his mind off her, which was extremely hard seeing as how she was right on him.

"But it's fun right?" she asked him looking in his eyes; she was piercing him deep with the brilliant blue.

"No… it's not fun Ava, it's wrong…" he said to her, he lifted her up off him and back up on the counter. He leaned down and grabbed her suit case and utility belt; he got up and started walking away.

"Wait! What's wrong?" she asked him as she walked after him.

"Well it looks like the shows over everyone," Ahzrukhal said disappointed, he threw the uniform over the counter. She heard it hit the floor and went over and picked it up. She put it on quickly without buttoning it, and slipped her boots on.

"Fallen, wait for me, what's wrong?" she asked him again.

"You know what's wrong," he snapped at her as he walked out into the hallway. "He was trying to get you to have sex and you didn't even care! It's gross; do you even know what you are doing?"

"Sex? Like to have babies? Why would he do that?" she asked still very much drunk.

"You really have no idea do you?" he sighed, and took her to him fastening the front of her uniform. "Come on let's find someplace to sleep." He led her back to Carol's Place.

"I am very tired still, sleep would be nice…" she said staggering behind him. He went to the front desk at Carol's and put down the last of his caps. He lifted her up in his arms and brought her over to the bed. She laid there for a while, her hair lain out under her like a golden blanket. "Will you stay next to me?" she said softly and kindly. He went over and sat next to the bed with his back against the wall. She rolled over and put her hand on him, with a smile she fell asleep.

The next morning Fallen woke her, shaking her violently. "Hey! Wake up you've been sleeping forever!" she opened her eyes slowly. "We are heading west to Tenpenny Tower. I know a ghoul out that way who might now how to help you with getting your family to come to the wasteland…Well he'll help if he knows you are doing something to help us all." Fallen shook her again.

"Jeeze, I'm awake," she groaned, "My head is killing me… what happened last night?" she said sitting up looking at him.

"Let's just say you were the best attraction this side of DC ruins." Fallen told her, he helped her up out of the bed. "We are going to have to trade your clothes for some new ones that will help protect you more out in the wasteland. It's a long way out and around here there is a lot more to worry about then there was where you came from." He had her follow him out in the hall and down the stairs. He led her to a small shop down stairs that had a female ghoul standing at the counter looking very sad.

"Hello," she said, "It been a while since I have seen some one new around, my name's Tulip, you are?" she said standing straight and questioning them both.

"I'm Fallen and this is my human master, Ava. We are in need of a more protective covering for her than what she has on. Do you have anything?" Fallen asked.

"Oh, you two don't look like master and slave… but it really depends on what you have, to what I can give you." She said to him looking back and forth at both of them.

"Well we have her vault uniform and…" he put her suit case up on the table and pulled out her pink dress. "We have this as well." Fallen handed Tulip the dress.

"Well I can give you something like what I am wearing but it might be a little big in some spots on her. She seems a little… small…" Tulip looked at Ava then pulled the outfit out from under the counter. "Well you can try it on if you want; then again you are going to have to if you want to trade the uniform for it."

Ava looked at Fallen as if to tell him to leave, "It's not like I haven't seen it before…" he grumbled at her.

"Wait! What… have you been spying on me?" she cried, crossing her arm over her chest.

"What did you think I meant when I told you that you were the best attraction this side of DC! You were drunk crawling nude all over the bar with everyone ogling you! I happened to be sitting right up front, and trust me I didn't enjoy it!" he said in self defense. "You looked about as beautiful as a Feral! You look like a blanket draped over a skeleton."

She scowled at him, "Well at least I don't look like a zombie like you! You jerk!" she yelled at him, "no offense Tulip…" she turned to Tulip and took the outfit.

"I understand dear, none taken… he deserved it…" Tulip said as she put the pink dress away.

Ava stripped down in front on Fallen, she looked him in the face and two fingers pointed them at her eyes then at him, telling him "I'm watching you!" She slipped the new garments of clothing on; she looked amazing, like she could kick a man's ass. The pants hung on her a bit but that wasn't too much of a problem. She just tightened her utility belt around her waist to keep her pants up. The top she put on shown her stomach and the tan colored scar that wrapped itself around her side.

"Well, I don't see how this can be more protective then my Vault Uniform but I will take your word for it. Here is the Vault Uniform to complete the rest of the exchange." Ava handed Tulip the uniform and glared at Fallen.

"What did I do?" he growled, "it's not my fault you can't control yourself. I didn't take off your clothes for you, I put them back on!" he turned away from her with his arms crossed.

"Well, it looks like we are leaving then?" she hissed through her teeth. She then nodded farewell to Tulip and lead them out of the shop and out of Underworld.

Once they were out in the museum she turned to Fallen and struck him. "You!" she growled, "you didn't learn a god damned thing did you. I told you not to talk unless spoken too. You keep disobeying me! WHY?!" she screeched at him and stood on her toes to get face to face with him.

"If I didn't you would be dead already…" he said to her looking down into her eyes, "Anyway it's not like any of the ghouls were watching to get off or anything. They were more interested in watching you looking like a circus freak for Ahzrukhal." The blue of her eyes was turning a pale grey as he looked at her, he could see tears coming up in the corners of her eyes. "Hey… are you alright?" he asked her sympathetically.

She turned from him quickly and started walking away with tears running down her face. "Keep the suit case! Your contract is in there… just leave me and never show your face to me again…" she continued on until she was out the front doors of the museum.

His heart sank in his chest, if he wanted to be away from her so badly why did he feel so guilty? He tightened his grip on the suit case handle and began walking out after her.

As soon as she was out in the open she did her best to brush the tears from her face, and started in a southern direction. She just wanted to go back to the Vault and die there with her family; she wanted to tell them there was nothing out here. She could hear running behind her, she turned back to see Fallen running after her.

"No…" she yelled to him, "You get away from me, you think I'm just a joke. You have your stupid piece of paper! Just go away." She started to cry again, and he caught up to her and grabbed her up in his arms.

"Come on kid, you think I am just going to let you die out in the wasteland. You promised me anyway… I can't leave now…" he felt her sobbing into his chest, her frail body shivering with sadness. As much as he didn't like her, he didn't want to see her pain either, she was nice enough to everyone else she didn't deserve it. "Hey, I'm sorry, let's put it behind us alright?" he said to her trying to make her stop crying.

"No, you shouldn't be sorry, I'm sorry!" she cried into him harder. She hugged him hard and kept sobbing, "I just wanted you to listen to me, and I was doing what that guy said. Being firm with you!"

He rolled his head back and pulled her away and stood her up straight. "You don't have to be so cruel to me. I personally will respond to you better if you are kind." He looked into her eyes, they were red from crying and her face was flushed as well. "Come on, I'm gonna bring you to the Washington Monument before we head out, that should make you feel a little better, huh?" Fallen looked down at her sad face and saw it start to light up.

"We are really going? Can we look out from the top?" she pulled the tears off her face with the back of her hand. "I always wanted to, ever since I was little I dreamed of it while looking at those pictures!" she smiled at him and hugged him again.

"I'm surprised you don't mind the smell…" he said to her putting a hand on her shoulder.

"What do you mean?" she looked up at him and inhaled, "Oh…right…rotting flesh! Sorry…" she took a step back, "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"Uncomfortable?..." he huffed in his raspy voice. "Anyway I thought I was making you uncomfortable!" he looked at her with is eyebrows raised.

"Not really, you actually don't smell as bad as your brethren. You don't really look quiet as bad either, I mean…you still have actual eye brows and… well… lip definition. You have about 30% more skin on you body than the average ghoul." She talked at him while she started to walk in the direction of the Washington Monument. "You actually might be the most beautiful ghoul around you know!" she told him.

He blushed lightly, "So… Then why did you keep calling me a zombie and a scab?" he asked her softly as he followed her.

"Now, I meant you were possibly the best looking of the ghouls not that I thought you were gorgeous…well 'm not saying you're not…but….err…you know what I mean!" she stammered trying not to make Fallen feel horrible. She took an awkward couple of steps, feeling the ghoul following her close. She always seemed to never fail at causing awkward situations. She took a breath in, "So…" she released heavily, "Um… this ghoul we are going to see at this tower. Do you think if he likes me enough he could get help to so I can go back and get my family?" she put her hands together behind her back.

"I'm not quite sure really, he doesn't usually do that for people. I don't see what harm it would cause to ask though…" he said pausing for a moment. "You know, I'm not always going to be around... I think I might teach you how to protect yourself for when I am gone." He said walking a little slowly behind her.

"You are leaving me… I didn't really want to give up your contract!" she whipped around and took the suit case back; she reached her hand in balancing it on her leg and pulled the contract out. She stuffed it in her utility belt. "You are still mine you still have to do as I say. You therefore you can't leave!" she cried out, he could see her heart pounding in her chest and the fear in her eyes when she looked back up at him.

He grumbled to himself, "Okay, maybe coming back wasn't a good idea…" the guilt and sadness for her faded quickly, and the hate returned. He wasn't pleased with her at all, his chance for freedom had come and gone once again. He only came back because there was promise of a cure. He just wanted to walk away from this "cure" she was concocting and never look back on it again. For all he knew the cure wasn't even going work, hell she didn't know either. He was such a fool to keep following her around.

She ignored him as she gave him the suit case back and they continued on to the Washington Monument. The tall structure was still such a sad thought to her that the capital was this severely ruined. They continued up to the front of the monument; where they were approached by brotherhood members. "State your business!" one of them said in a familiar voice.

"You!" she said, "It's you, you are the one that saved me the other day…" she was blushing hard, "Well I want to tour the capital, and this is one of my first stops…" she was looking down at her feet and twisting her fingers around nervously behind her back.

"Well, I can bring you… and your "friend" up and let you look around, it'll be my treat" he said to her, "Anyway it's about time for me to take a break, gives me something to do." He led them both to the monument. Fallen walked several paces behind looking away from them both, he didn't like being around this jackass anymore than he enjoyed being around her. In fact, he hated him a lot more, only due to the affiliation that he had with the Brotherhood of Steel.

The entered the monument and went into the elevator. Inside the elevator he removed his helmet. He has tan skin, dark hair and eyes, his features were very rugged. She looked at him with a soft smile, "Well you aren't that bad looking now are you? I half expected to see one of those dirty weirdoes's under there; it's like no one out in the wasteland bathes." She half giggled at this.

"Those weirdoes, you must mean the raiders and slavers. They are very dirty people, most of us bath still when we can find a good water source, or a place to stay with running water." He shot a glare at Fallen as if to say unlike ghouls. It was typical of a human to think that of course, it wasn't that ghouls didn't bathe it was just some figured why bother they smelt horrible either way, the same as some humans.

Fallen watched from the corner of the elevator as he moved in on her; talking to her about the beautiful view and what to expect. He was furious, he was going to show her the view but now this fucking smooth skin was taking his place. _"God what am I thinking, why should I care? It's not like we are an item or anything. I just really hate him! I want HIM to leave!"_

As they exited the elevator at the top floor, Fallen grumbled to himself with dissatisfaction. Ava turned to him, "Hey," she scolded lightly, "Don't be that way alright, I didn't forget about you." She turned away from him and followed the Brotherhood stranger to a small window looking out upon the ruined city. It was still so depressing for her but she was slowly becoming used to that fact that the old books back in the Vault were no longer valid or accurate, for the exception of the medical books. The man told her all the buildings names, and what role they played now in the current society.

He put an arm around her thin waist, "You know, I could probably travel with you; I think I could help you out quite a bit." He said pulling her in close to him as they looked out over the city. "I think I may be of more help than your ghoul." He smiled down at her.

"Wow, that would be amazing!" she smiled back at him.

"_Oh Great! She is going to replace me, after the promise and me coming back! I should have just killed her, the mother fucking smooth skin bitch!" _Fallen gritted his teeth and balled up his fist just as he was about to speak up she broke back in.

"But, Fallen and I kind of have an agreement…" she told him, "you seem nice enough but, I really can't leave Fallen." She went to Fallen and put her arm around his, softly touching his hand. He was at a loss, Fallen could plainly see the surprise on the man's face as well. "I'm sure you would be fine to travel with, and I thank you for showing me the sites but we really do have to go. We have a long trek and we can no longer afford to waste time." She explained to him from Fallen's side.

"You know, if you are ever back in the area and need anyone you can come to me," he told her disappointed, "but if you must go then I guess this is good bye." She bowed her head to him and led Fallen with herself into the elevator. She pressed the button to start the decent, "Why didn't you bring him? You seemed like you liked him enough…" Fallen asked her still surprised, and very relieved.

"Well…" she said softly, "I can't give up you! I almost already did and I have become very fond of having you around in this short time…. Besides I want YOU to show me around DC personally not from some tower." She hugged his arm hard, he tightened his other hands grip on the suit case handle as his heart began to pound. She was confusing but he was coming to realize that she did treasure him and what he did for her more than he thought she did.

The elevator landed on the bottom floor, and they exited out into the small entrance room. She didn't let go of his arm, she reminded him of a small child hanging on to her parent for comfort. "So I guess we are starting out journey to this Tenpenny Place then, huh?" she asked him petting his arm lightly.

"Yeah, it is going to be a very long walk. It will most likely take us about twelve to sixteen hours or more if we just walk straight there. I am going to have us go to Megaton… if it's still there… then to Tenpenny Tower." He explained the plan to her, "You don't have to hold me anymore… It will take about five hours to walk to Megaton." He finished and she looked at him letting go of his arm slowly.

She looked down at the ground thinking of something to say to him. Things between then were quiet for a while as they started out in a western direction. She looked out across the pond as they walked along side it. She could see that they were coming up on the Lincoln Memorial building. They stayed right as they came up on the building and neared a chain link fence. She looked at the memorial with wonder. It was so amazingly beautiful, she felt honored as she stood there looking at it.

"Hey! You coming or are you just going to stand there sightseeing all day?" Fallen said to her from beside the fence. "I'm going to lift you up over this then I will be right over with you don't leave my sight you hear me?" she looked at the monument a little longer then came over to him so that he could help her up and over the fencing. "Sorry we can't look at the monument close up, last I knew the place was swarming with slavers. It's best just to keep our distance." He told her pushing her up over the fence. Once she was safely on the other side he began to climb over as well. He landed next to her and looked at her. "I promise not every place we go will be like this." He gestured for her to follow him as they passed through the towering skeletal buildings. The continued on west across the open area behind the Lincoln Memorial until the once again reached the decaying buildings.

"So I take it we are going to have to climb this rubble?" she asked him sarcastically, as she began climbing. He followed her up the pile of rubble that looked on to a small river. They came out near a large bridge, "So are we taking the bridge or do we not need to cross the river?" she asked him stepping down the rubble pile to the bridge.

"Oh we need the bridge, unless you want to swim and run the risk of running into a Mirelurk!" he said to her with a smug look on his face.

"I think I will take the bridge. From what I have figured out anything that lives out here is not something you want to tango with." She said following him as he started across the bridge. She looked to her left at the buildings and the road that curved down. The buildings had a walkway connecting them and it looked as though there was someone up there. "Hey Fallen, what's that over there?" she pointed to the walkway between the buildings.

"Don't make you self noticeable, it's probably raiders or Super Mutants over there. We just need to keep heading west." He told her urging her along. She did as he said; he knew much more about the wasteland than she did and she knew full well that if she wanted to stay alive then she would listen to his every word. They crossed the bridge and she noted all the old cars that were crumbled and banged up just seemingly tossed around everywhere. The waters below were a murky color and she was afraid to see what kind of marine life was below its surface.

They got to the end of the bridge and went carefully down its dilapidated slope. They climb their way up the debris and back up onto the road once more. They continued this way for a short ways; they came to a sign that said Anchorage War Memorial with an Arrow Pointing across the river. She could see a short ways up that there was a dock with a cabin. They went up to it and it had a sign that read: Captain Paelia Dockside Bar and Grill. They went to the front side of the cabin and knocked on the door. There was no answer from inside; it looked like the area had been deserted for some time anyways.

"Fallen, there is an outhouse over there can I use the bathroom I really have to go!" she said doing a little dance and pointing to the other end of the docks.

"Yeah, but I'm coming over with you." He said following her over to the outhouse.

"Hey!" she scolded, "Don't look, it's rude!" he turned away from her and she undid her pants and sat down. He could hear the echo of her urine hitting the bottom; she really must have had to go pretty bad. "What about toilet paper?" she asked from behind him.

"What?" he put a hand on his forehead, "looks like you are going to have to suffer for now." He said to her over his shoulder. She grumbled to herself as she pulled up her pants. It was so uncomfortable for her out here. She wanted a nice hot bath or shower at this point.

"So is there a bath or shower in Megaton?" she asked him patting him letting him know it was alright to turn around again.

"I think they are all public use, and they aren't exactly… the nicest either." He told her starting their walk once again.

"You don't have to go? It's been a long time since you went though!" she asked him in surprise. Come to mention it he did have to go to the bathroom pretty bad, he was just so caught up in bring them both safely to Megaton that he really hadn't noticed until she said something about it.

"Yeah, I will just lean over here, keep an eye out alright," he told her as he stood off the side of the road and urinated. He winced and groaned slightly, causing her to come and investigate. "Hey what do you think you're doing?" he finished and zipped his pants quickly.

"It seems that you have some pain or discomfort while urinating. I think I will give you a tube of the ointment in my suitcase to rub on yourself. It should help stop the pain." She said, as the once again started to walk. They made the way to some buildings and up a steep hill behind one.


	6. Chapter 6

"Not much further," he told her as they came up over the hill. "The most we have to worry about now are Mole Rats and Radscorpions." They made their way across the wasteland, the whole way they only ran into two Mole Rats and Fallen took care of them with no problem. They approached the large metal town to be greeted by a Projectron robot.

"Welcome to Megaton" it greeted them mechanically, "Have yourself a nice visit partner." The large gates to the city opened revealing a set of wide metal doors. Ava was astounded by the metal town.

"This is Megaton? Fallen it's absolutely amazing!" she said to him in awe. Everything was so perfect to her, it was the most well build civilization she had seen yet it the whole wasteland. There was a large common and a cul-de-sac full of people. She looked everywhere her eyes could travel in the massive area. "So what are going to do here?" she asked him with childlike delight.

"Well…we are heading over to Gob's," Fallen told her pointing off in the general direction. "I would like to see if I can get something to drink." He reached his hand in his pocket, feeling the lack of caps and froze up. "I forgot we don't have any caps to afford anything to eat." He told her quietly.

He turned to walk back out of the town, "Wait where are we going? I thought we were going to this Gob's place!" she said following after him.

"Well, it seems like we are out of money and I am going use this opportunity to go teach you how to kill food for us." He said leading her back out of the town. He went around the perimeter of Megaton to find some more Mole Rats.

Once he found them and was a safe distance he turned to her. "Okay," he handed her the gun, "So… you hold it like this." He placed her hand on the gun placing her index finger inside the guard. "You have to aim carefully; look down the gun across the sight." She leaned her head down and squinted one eye readying to fire. "Alright if you think you have it then you can pull the trigger, but not until you are ready!" He stepped back away from her, and waited for her to get her composure.

She carefully aimed the gun and pulled the trigger. The back lash from the pistol made her arm fly up and hit her in the face. Fallen couldn't help but laugh inside as he went over to help her off the ground. Tears welled up in her eyes and she had a large pink lump on her eyebrow. Her blue eyes had reddened and ran with tears from the pain. "Guess that isn't a good idea." He said to her picking up the gun and firing at the Mole Rat killing it. He lifted her from the ground and set her up on her feet. "We can sell this and get some real food and a place to sleep in exchange. You better order something a little heartier, you need some meat on your bones if you are going to survive out here, one shot could kill you. Not to mention you will be more susceptible to radiation poisoning." His raspy voice had always hanged in her heart when he spoke making her heart sing out with joy. Her tears cleared up as they brought the Mole Rat within the confines of the town.

They made their way to a little shop called Crater Side Supply and sold the mole rat to the young lady behind the counter. "Wait before you go, Grandma Moria always has me give these to people." She handed them a book called the Wasteland Survival Guide. "I know, they are a little out dated now but, they are still fairly useful." She said leaning over the counter handing to them.

"Thank you very much!" Ava thanked her with a polite tone taking the book from her and followed Fallen out waving goodbye.

"So now we have some money let's go to the Saloon and see Gob!" Fallen chuckled, He looked back at her, noticing that she had been very docile as of late. "Hey kid what's wrong?"

"Nothing really why?" she asked him looking up at him quiet puzzled.

"Well you have been exceptionally nice to me lately and I was wondering what was going on," he had a concerned look on his face.

"Oh, my sister must have stopped then, she tends to make me kinda mean," she told him and he was completely thrown for a loop. "Oh, that's right, well you see I had a 'twin' sister when I was born but since our eggs didn't separate we basically share a brain. I mean we do share a brain and sometimes she can be pretty rude, I am fairly nice though. She is much smarter than me too; she will know what to do with the medicine when I finally have a lab to work with."

Fallen looked at her in disbelief, okay maybe she was fucking crazy! But then again it did come to help him understand why she had such personality swings. He found himself wondering how long it would be before her sister came back into the personality. He definitely like this side of her much better then he liked the other side, he wanted to fucking kill the other side of her. This side was a lot more laid back and seemingly more companionate.

They came up on the Saloon and entered it slowly, as Fallen came across the thresh hold of the door he was greeted loudly by a harsh raspy voice. "Fallen! It's been such a long time I was starting to wonder what had happened to you!" Gob leaned over the counter gazing happily across the room.

"Gob, it has been far too long," Fallen replied smiling harder than Ava had ever seen him simile before. He led Ava to the bar and had her take a seat on a bar stool next to him. "Do you have anything to eat? I can imagine the poor kid is pretty hungry we just came from Underworld." Fallen leaned on the counter asking the other ghoul.

"Of course anything for an old friend." Gob went into the back and came back with something skewered to a stick.

He set it in front of Ava and she looked at it in disgust. "Do I have to eat this?" she asked looking at Fallen from the bar stool.

He glared down at her then slowly replied, "Do you want to survive out in the wastes. I advise that you eat as much as you can as often as you can; you never know when your next meal will come out there."

"Don't give me attitude!" she said putting her hand on her hips, "I have just never seen anything like this before, I will take your word that is wont kill me any faster. I don't even want to know what it is." She said taking the food on a stick and taking a large bite out of it. She chewed it slowly doing her best not to spit it out. It was obvious from her expression that she thought it was absolutely horrendous tasting.

The two ghouls began talking a lot about of the old days, they talked of all the times they used to sit and talk just like this before Fallen had been turned and was turning into a ghoul. "I remember," Gob started reminiscing with him, "That when you started turning you were so worried about your wife. Comes to find out your wife was turning too from the radiated area that you lived in; She was afraid to tell you as well! I remember that you came to me and you were so happy that you weren't going through all that alone." Fallen had a sad yet happy look on his face as Gob spoke to him. "Lily was a beautiful woman, and a beautiful ghoul. It's just too bad that when everything was sad and done she decided to take her own life. She was so lucky to have you…" Gob said to him, "You would have loved her even if you weren't a ghoul too."

Fallen looked down at the counter top, "Yeah, that was almost forty years ago, whatever happened to you and Nova? Did you ever get YOUR girl?" Fallen asked him.

"Nah, Nova left not long after Moriarty died. She didn't want to live this life anymore; I can imagine that she is long since dead by now. I would be surprised if she survived out in the wasteland." Gob explained, "If she did she would be, what, like eighty by now!?" Gob laughed hoarsely.

Ava finished her meal and started tugging on Fallen's arm. "When are we heading to the tower?" she asked him when he turned his attention to her. She was looking somewhat sad and sick.

"Oh! Sorry kid, we are going to stay here for the night…. You aren't looking to good; I'll bring you up to bed." Fallen stood up from the stool and placed a hand on Ava's shoulder. "First door at the top of the stairs, right Gob?" he asked Gob over the counter.

"Yeah, don't worry about the charge, it's on the house." Gob said to him wiping down glass cups behind the bar.

Fallen lead Ava to the bedroom and laid her down in the bed. Ava curled up and rolled away from him, he laid next to her and held her tight to himself. "Fallen?" her voice piped up from the quiet of the room.

"Yeah, Ava?" he replied to her sounded extremely concerned.

"Thank you…" she sounded so sad, he felt his heart drop in his body. God why was she sick like this all of a sudden. He was hoping it wasn't the food.

"For what?" Fallen asked her puzzling what could possibly be wrong.

"You take such good care of me and you don't even have to… I love you… like a father…" she said closing her eyes and nestling her back into him closer. Fallen smiled, god he felt the same; it was like she was the child he never had. He held her so close; she was so warm and so soft. He felt amazed that in this short time of knowing her that he had become so close and attached, but he knew it wasn't going to be this way forever, especially if she got sick out here this quickly. He knew for sure that she wasn't going to survive very long at this rate at all.

Ava drifted softly into her sleep, she dreamed of darkness. She was standing alone then suddenly she was being torn apart. Her skin let go of the muscles and ligaments. She stood with her muscles exposed unable to move, and then she was forced down into the fetal position. The muscles began to melt away leaving her organs and bone. She could feel anything except the harsh pain of her mind becoming unwound. Then out of now where she was in the middle of strange buildings, whole again, it was the capital whole again. The shop windows were full of strange objects with large teeth and shuttering bodies. There were streets full of colors and lights; she ran after her family, but she was moving so slow, they were all waving goodbye! She didn't want to say goodbye, she still had to go back to the vault and rescue them; she needed them here in the wasteland. "What could this all mean?" Ava was frightened at this, her family disappeared into darkness, and once again she was left alone. The flowers began to shut and grow back down into the ground and she could hear Fallen's voice. His voice was like a saving grace in the darkness.

"Kid! You have to wake the hell up!" she woke to Fallen shaking her, "God I thought you would never wake up, are you alright?" It was morning and Gob was standing over her as well. With a bucket of water and a wash cloth dabbing her as she was laying there sweating.

"Yeah I was just having this weird dream…" she said as she held a hand to her head. It was pounding in her skull, as she removed her hand her hair came with it. She looked at the strands of hair in her hand. She put the other one up there and the same thing happened.

"How radiated is she?" Gob asked Fallen. Fallen grabbed her wrist and looked at the Pip-Boy on her arm.

"Holy shit! She should be dead!" Fallen picked her up in his arms and rushed her out of Gob's and down to the medic. Gob watched as Fallen rushed down the stairs and out the doors. He knew that Ava was a lucky one to have Fallen looking after he but he was so sure that Fallen would be able to handle having someone he cared about possibly die on him again.

Fallen burst through the doors at the medical building, the doctor just merely looked up at him from the desk, "Hello, you better have a good reason to be here." The doctor said to him as he entered the door. Holding Ava cradled in his arms.

"She over radiated and losing her hair, do something!" Fallen rushed the doctor. Fallen brought her over to the cot and set her down.

"Calm down," the doctor said getting going across the room and grabbing some RadAway from the shelf. He got it ready then came over to her and injected it in her. "There, you should be alright for now but…" he paused for a moment looking up at Fallen, "keep her away from any further radiation or she will end up like you or dead." Fallen dropped caps in the man's hand and held Ava close.

"Well it looks like we are going to have to get to Roy's place sooner than I would have liked…" he looked down at her, she still looked pretty bad. She had dark circles under her eyes and she was starting to look a little green.

"I'm so sorry that I ruined what you had planned…" she said slowly to him. He could see plainly that she was extremely woozy. He helped her back to Gob's place so that they could say their goodbyes before making their long journey across the capital wasteland.

The walk was treacherous and Fallen carried her most of the way. There were times when he had to stopped and let her down so that she could throw up. She was still so sick and Fallen had no idea what to do, he was definitely sure that the amount of radiation that she had somehow received caused a lot of problems internally. He actually was too surprised that she was throwing up, he remember back to when he was becoming a ghoul he threw up a lot as well.

The sun was dimming in the sky as they walked on; he found an alcove in the rocks and decided that this place was a fair shelter for them to sleep for a while. He wasn't tired but he definitely knew that she needed to sleep. He stayed up with her the whole night, he held her as she leaned against him sleeping as peacefully as she could considering how she was feeling.

He was rushed by a sense of worry and guilt. "What if this was all my fault, then what?" he asked himself quietly looking down at her, "God, I am so sorry kid." He watched as the sun rose in the sky and the stars faded away. He let her sleep for a while, as the sun was rising high, he figured at this time it was about noon. He reached down to her and brushed his rough hand on her face. "Hey!" he said quietly to her trying not to startle her, "Ava, you gotta wake up so that we can get to the tower before night fall."

Her eyes began searching under her lids as she tried to wake herself up, "Fallen?" she croaked in a tired sick voice. His stomach was in knots, the poor girl was getting sicker by the hour and he knew that just sitting here was wasting time. He got up and pulled her off the ground into his arms. He walked the rest of the way carrying her; he was feeling so weak and helpless as the young girl became heavier in his tired arms.

They reached the front gate of the tower and Fallen set her down, and then approached the intercom. "Let me in!" he demanded hoarsely.

"Do you have an appointment with Roy?" the voice said from the other end.

"I don't need one! Roy and I go way back, trust me." He said to the ghoul on the other side.

"I trust you cause you're kin, but don't mess anything up!" the gate opened letting them both in. Fallen waved a small thank you to the guard as he passed then entering the tower. He took no time to stop and say words to anyone, he headed in and went right to the elevator, Ava followed behind slowly. They went in and rode the elevator up slowly. He could see that Ava was much sicker then she was earlier on in the day; he hoped deep in his heart that he could find the help she needed here. The elevator stopped at the top and they exited with Fallen holding her around the shoulders.

He knew right where Roy was and made his way through the penthouse and out onto the balcony. "Roy! I need your help!"

Roy heard the all too familiar voice and spun around. "Fallen? I thought you were dead what do you need…" he turned to Fallen stopping abruptly when he saw the human girl with him. "Oh! Not this again! Just like Lily! I am not going down that road again; I couldn't save her last time I can't save her now!" Roy said backing up making gestures to tell him he definitely didn't want anything to do with them.

"You don't understand, she can cure us if we can help her get better!" Fallen said to him quickly. Roy looked the girl up and down, and then took Fallen by the arm leading him and her out off the balcony and back into the penthouse.

"You can have a suite here, and I will give you medical supplies. Just don't go nuts again; I thought you went Feral when Lily died." Roy put a hand on Fallen's shoulder and dropped a key into his hand. He pointed out across the lobby to a room, "You will find a Lab, a bed, infirmary and everything that you might possibly need in there. Other than that I am not being dragged into this." Roy looked the ghouls up and down, "I will give you armor as well, your grunt outfit must have made the trek even hard than normal for you." Roy dismissed himself and went back to the balcony and stood there looking out upon the wasteland.

"God what am I doing?" Roy asked himself looking out upon the vast brown land in front of him. "I know that Fallen will go crazy again if that girl dies on him like his wife did… the poor fuck."

Fallen worked hard to bring the poor girl back to health, it took nearly a week to get her in a healthy enough condition enough to speak to him in full sentences. Her skin was turning a grey color and her breath was becoming shallow.

"Fallen, I just want to cure you…" she wheezed and turned her head coughing, "You deserve it…" she pulled the blanket off her thin body. The t-shirt that was once his hung on her and she looked like a ghost. She pulled herself off the bed and did all she could to make it to the lab set on the other side of the room.

"Ava, you need to lay down…" Fallen said begging, but she raised one hand to silence him.

"You will do as I say, just leave me alone…" Ava was more than just serious about working until she died to find a cure for Fallen and his kind. She was vigilant, strong in her own way, and most of all she was kind. She cared more than any human had ever cared for the ghouls ever and it was just a shame that she was slowly dying from a strange radiation sickness that no one could cure.

Fallen left the room and sat out in the lobby on a bench, he put his head in his hands and mulled for a long time over what he was going to do without her. It was way too soon for her to possibly die. They didn't know each other for that long, but he was losing his only child, though she wasn't really his, he felt that he had a parental responsibility over her.

Roy came to Fallen with grim with a grim look on his face. "I'm sorry Fallen," Roy stood in front of him, "The guys got to the vault that she said she lived at and they had all killed one another, poor fucks…" Fallen pushed everything else out of his head and he couldn't hear the voice that was speaking to him any longer. Fallen just stood pushing Roy away and walked back in too see Ava.

"Your family…" Fallen started as he walked in and stood behind her, she was working hard and sweating from the fever.

"I already know…" she wheezed to him over her shoulder. He was shocked, and put a hand on her shoulder. "They died the night I started showing signs of being sick." She sighed, "I was just hoping my feelings where wrong…" she continued her work in silence. Fallen sat in the room with her for hours waiting for her to say something to him.

The time that passed was like this all time now, she never spoke much to him, saving all the energy that she could to create a working cure for him. She only spoke when he need his injection every day at the same time like clockwork. Her work was day in and day out; when she did take a break she would collapse on her desk. Fallen carried her to the bed nursing her back to health every time. He didn't want her die; she was so small and precious to him. He couldn't believe how much she really meant to him, from day one when he looked in her eyes he could see that she had hopes for him. She worked hard and stressed herself like this for weeks, and those weeks turned to months.

Roy ran in on a Tuesday morning with frightening news, "The Brotherhood of Steel…" he gasped out of air, "They want the girl and all the information she has about the cure…." Roy looked at Fallen then at Ava.

Ava put her hands down on the desk, "I'm so close…" she turned to Fallen, "Take all my supplies and put them in the suit case, now, we will leave with what we have and hide for now. The serum is in great condition it will work slower than I want it too but it still works." she took a needle out filling it with her serum.

Fallen came to her and let her administer the cure to him. He could see in the mirror that his face was beginning to clear up from all the testing she had done over the past month. His skin was scaring over and starting to heal, it wasn't perfect but at least he wasn't flaking and peeling anymore. He diligently packed everything on her lab station away in the suit case. She packed the large pot of the serum into hundreds of tiny viles with Roy's wife, Bessie Lynn, helping her to the best of her ability. When they were finished Ava gave Bessie small kiss on the cheek, "Thank you for helping Fallen keep me alive and well as possible for this long." Ava breathed in slowly and smiled at the female ghoul.

"It was the least we could do for someone trying so hard to help our people out." Bessie said to her very gratefully, but sad at the sight of the poor girl.

Roy could see all too well that Fallen was coming apart like he had done years before. The difference was that this time he was losing his daughter and not his wife. "If there is anything I can do…" Roy started but Ava interrupted.

"No…" she breathed slowly, "I don't need more people involved… just tell the Brotherhood… that we were never here…save your people the trouble of getting caught up in anything."

Fallen helped her change into her lab coat and pants. Her body was much thinner and frail then it had been before. Her Pip-Boy hung loosely on her arm, her breast had turned into nothing and every bone in her body had become very visible. She hadn't eating and kept it down in so long, he knew at this point that Ava was not going to last long at all.

The journey ahead was going to be hard, and he knew it better than anyone. They set out in a Northern direction across the wasteland in hopes to find somewhere that would take them in.

They had made it past the Power Station and he could see the Brotherhood coming up on horizon to the east. It was too late to get her out of the area; there was nothing that he could do. Fallen looked back in the direction of the Power Station, it was a dot in the distance now. He could then see other people in dark armor coming up from the North-North West, and his heart sank hard, he looked down at Ava and he could see that she was still so sick. "I'm sorry," he said to her as he hugged her tight.

"Well…." She struggled to speak, "I might as well just give myself to the Brotherhood, let's face it, it's not like I am going to live long anyways at this point" She broke away from him and began walking in the direction of the Brotherhood.

The gun was fired once and that was all it took to make his dreams come crashing down around him. No cure. No Hope, just death.

"For man had succeeded in destroying the world, but war... war never changes."

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE!!!

Yes I realize that is was cut short, but there is a part two so everything that you were like "What the Hell?" about will (hopefully) be explained to you in the second story! So.... Hang tight I have already started to pre-write the second story and I have some ready they just need to be edited!!!

Trust me part two is WAY more interesting this was mostly back story!


End file.
